Segment 1 – Welcome to Explaining U.S. Healthcare

This is the first of a 10-part series in which Duncan MacLean MD explains the U.S. healthcare problem and how to fix it. Dr. MacLean has 40 years experience with medical practice and healthcare policy.

You know, almost every day my patients have been asking me, What is the problem with U.S. healthcare? Of course, I couldn’t really answer in the middle of busy office hours.

 Here’s what President Trump had to say about healthcare in February 2017:

Photo by Gage Skidmore, Wikimedia Commons 

“Now I have to tell you It’s an unbelievably complex subject. Nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated.”

“So complicated,” indeed. . .

Healthcare is more complicated than just “repeal & replace Obama-care”. Voters who supported Donald Trump in the 2016 election said that they knew that all along. They just wanted someone to fix the system. They didn’t care about the complicated details.

But just how complicated is healthcare? Does it really need to be that complicated? And can it be fixed?

Please join me over the next 10 segments to talk about this. I’ve been in healthcare for 40 years, as a doctor, teacher and administrator. I’ve worked in private practice, a non-profit teaching hospital, for-profit business, and government healthcare. I’ve served on state and federal commissions.

More importantly I’ve been a small businessman and have raised a family. So I know the system from both the outside as a father and employee, and from the inside, including some dark secret corners.

Come along as I explain all these things. You might be surprised at some of my answers.

Here are some of the questions I’ll tackle in future segments:

– How did we get here?

– What is the problem

– Why is the healthcare problem important?

– Can healthcare be fixed?

Spoiler alert on that last one – I hope so. And in the last segment I will tell you about a fix that actually worked — 25 years ahead of its time.

I hope you’ll queue up the next segment. I’ll see you then.