Boomers won't bust us - Health care will

Boomers won't bust us - Health care will
Please click above link to read the CNN article.
Our economy appears to be suffering. The overall health of the future of american economy is described in CNBC article (http://www.cnbc.com/id/26001658) and the upcoming documentary, IOUSA.

Along with the trade deficits and the federal deficits are two culprits. A major portion of federal deficits, especially in the coming future, will be from Health Care. The U.S. government is the biggest payor of health care expenses including Medicaid and Medicare. http://www.cms.hhs.gov/nationalhealthexpenddata/ provides useful statitistics. In 2017, it is estimated that nearly 20% GDP will be dedicated to healthcare. That means nearly quarter of every dollar will be spent in health care.

What do we get from this very expensive health care system? The best in the world? No, not even close. http://healthcare-economist.com/2008/07/18/us-health-care-scores-poorly/ is an article that describes the health care system as sick. And this sick health care system is making our finances ill.

I believe that integrative medicine and preventive medicine can make a difference in the quality of care and quality of life. It is this firm belief that I chose to train beyond family medicine. I spent two years completing a preventive medicine residency and a master's in public health and another two years training with Dr. Andrew Weil at U of Arizona.

Integrative Medicine makes use of the Western diagnostic tools and also uses less invasive tools of healing for a problem before rushing to more invasive and more expensive modalities such as surgery. Preventive Medicine makes use of existing tools to prevent problems to become worse.

I hope that our politicians pay attention to the coming trends and attempt to correct the course before our financial future of the country will be threatened.

John Kim, MD MPH
Director
Georgia Integrative Medicine