People want reform.

Another Harris poll (actually, it's a Harris interactive/Health Day poll) is out today.  This one found that there is strong support for President Obama's healthcare reforms:

• Half of the 2,491 adults surveyed in the nationwide poll said they either "strongly" or "somewhat" supported the president's plan to overhaul health care.
• Twenty-nine percent said they were still not sure about the plan, while 20 percent expressed opposition to the Obama proposals.

So far, we've not seen a whole lot of detail as to what reform will look like, but we do know that Obama see's the need for our healthcare system to be accessible to more people at a lower cost.  We heard this in stump speeches and after Obama took office.

I already mentioned this once this week (and it won't be the last time...), but any reform efforts must focus on the primary driver of our healthcare spending: chronic diseases. 

·         Nearly half of us suffer from one or more chronic diseases, such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease, which are often preventable and manageable.

·         75% of our healthcare spending goes toward treating chronic diseases.  Let's focus on the real problem. 

What should reform look like?

·         Prevention--we need to keep people healthier for a longer time.  We used to live shorter lives and were afflicted by more acute health problems.  Now, we live longer and develop chronic conditions!

·         Intervention--when people do become ill, we must make sure they have access to the right treatments and medicines at the right time.  Not every patients responds the same way.

·         Innovation--we must continue the search for better treatments and cures.

Now this is only part of reform, but unless we focus on the real problems, we may never get ahead of this problem.