If you aren’t aware, the U.S. healthcare system is not working for all Americans. It’s time we do something about that.

A Broken Health Care System

According to Dr. Michael Fine, we do not have a healthcare system at all. We have a marketplace. He is absolutely right. Medicine today is focused more on profit than care, and many people are left to fend for themselves when they cannot afford that care. While some organizations do their best to deliver the best care they can, others are more opportunistic, turning to capitalistic principles that put money into the pockets of profiteers.

The countries with the best health outcomes, the lowest infant mortality, and the best life expectancy usually spend about $4,000 or less per person per year. They do it by having a healthcare system. In the United States, we have a healthcare market, not a healthcare system.

Interview with Dr. Michael Fine in Guernica, October 5, 2017

The big question we need to ask ourselves is what is a healthcare system? Even more importantly, what can we do to improve health care in the United States?

Health Care Revolt

Dr. Michael Fine is the family physician at the heart of a grassroots campaign to change medicine as we know it. He is a chief health strategist for the City of Central Falls, RI, the Senior Clinical and Health and Population Health Services Officer for Blackstone Valley Community Health Care, Inc., and a board member for The Lown Institute. He was also the director of the Rhode Island Department of health from 2011 to 2015 and has won accolades including the Barbara Starfield Award, the John Cunningham Award, and the Austin T. Levy Award.

In his book, Health Care Revolt: How to Organize, Build a Health Care System, and Resuscitate Democracy — All at the Same Time, Dr. Michael Fine makes a passionate argument for change. He holds no punches and takes a critical look at how the current system fails us. The government and lobbyists politicize your health. Big Pharma and insurers maximize profits while withholding care. Doctors and hospitals order unnecessary tests to increase their bottom line.

We should never say, “Go down to Man’s Best Hospital to get your abdominal aneurysm fixed.” Instead, we should say, “An abdominal aortic aneurysm is a scary and dangerous thing. The risk of rupture and your dying from it is 5 percent per year. The surgery can be lifesaving, but the risk of not dying from it is 95 percent a year, the risk of a major complication is 10 to 20 percent, and the risk of getting an infection just from being in that hospital is 5 percent.

Michael Fine, Excerpt from Health Care Revolt

Health Care Revolt is not only a rant about what is wrong, it also finds hope in what is right. Dr. Fine looks at public health programs, past and present, and points out policies that were able to make impactful changes. He also uses a critical eye to show why some of those programs fizzled out and what it would take to keep the momentum building.

Time for Change

We cannot afford to continue down the path of for-profit medicine. Too many people suffer.

Dr. Fine encourages us to spread the word, to make people understand that they are pawns in a for-profit game, and to show them that they deserve better. There are better ways to build a healthcare system, one that will improve the health of not only individuals but of communities. If we do it right, we can grow healthy together.

Dr. Fine knows firsthand what it takes to strengthen a community. He has worked on the ground in Rhode Island and continues to support public health initiatives. Now, he has his eyes on the country. He is firing people up about what is wrong with the American healthcare system. His vision may be ambitious, idealistic, and even a bit daunting in scope, but it is a start. We need to see where we want to go and start taking the steps to get there.