Healthcare System or Illness Profit System?

In the great debate over American health care the question "Why is medical care so expensive?' should be followed by: Why is our health care system so very bad -- 37th in the world according to the World Health Organization? Especially considering that we spend more on our health care than any other nation on earth.

If we believe a healthy nation is a national priority, why aren't we getting results? Recent article in Huffington Post by Stephan Schwartz offers an explanation that we, unfortunately, agree with. It is because our health care system is not about health. What we have in the United States is an Illness Profit System. The illnesses and traumas of human beings are just the mechanism by which the money taps are opened. It is part of the human condition that everybody gets something that requires medical attention some time in their life, and the Illness Profit System is structured to exploit this. If you get well, it makes money on your treatment. If you don't get well it makes even more money on your treatment. The system is profitable at either end, but weighted towards illness. It's more profitable. The result is a system that is ultimately not based on health.