A Starting Point.

Although the United States has the most expensive and technologically advanced healthcare system in the world, it is far from being the best, and is plagued with serious flaws.

Shortcomings that lead to inadequate care, unnecessary patient deaths, exorbitant costs, lack of access to care and other issues.

Stakeholders on the provider side include the richest and most powerful industries and professions in the country.

Reformers are attempting to revamp the US healthcare system citing high-level, often unworkable, concepts based on political motivations.

And neither power bloc first considers the best care options for consumers.

I am a cancer patient on a government-run insurance plan that is administered by a private health insurer.

My experience as a cancer patient has led me to make many observations and ideas, ranging from my personal experience to new perspectives on healthcare, prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment, and the national healthcare reform debate. Read my prostate cancer blog.

I will present issues and answers on basic, high-level topics ordered in a progression by symptom, followed by potential causes, then proposed solutions.

Because the topic is so immense and complex, rather than get into the weeds on minor issues I will follow the 80-20 Pareto rule, in that addressing the 20 percent of relevant issues will have an 80 percent impact on the reform of the system.

This also applies to local, individual observations of practices whose improvement can have a dramatic impact on the system as a whole.

I started this website as a source of information, as a place to share ideas, experience and interaction from the perspective of a health care consumer. I hope that you find it useful.

And you are welcome to share your personal views and experiences. Read more about this website.

Thanks for visiting the Re-think Healthcare website, I hope that you find it useful.