Lecture on Health Care and Health

Introduction

• Society often portrayed as divided on issues like immigration, education, guns, and health care.
• Health care is a loud issue overshadowing others.
• Proposal: beneath the noise, there's consensus on health, not health care.

Understanding Health vs. Health Care

• Key Question: What do we need to be healthy?
  • Experiences from physicians: patients often need solutions beyond medical prescriptions.
  • Health Leads: Organization created to allow physicians to prescribe needs like food and utilities.

Impact of Social Determinants of Health

• Only 20% of health outcomes linked to medical care.
• Up to 70% tied to behaviors and social determinants (environment outside medical settings).
• Health care system outcomes strongly influenced by ZIP code over genetic code.

Current Health Care System Actions

• Investments in non-medical determinants like housing.
• Critique: Despite changes, health care isn't fundamentally designed to create health.

Issues in the Health Care System

• System often misses addressing basic needs like hunger.
• Example: Patient in Baltimore whose weight loss due to hunger, not illness.
• Misalignment of health care spending (e.g., malnutrition costs vs. food access).

Voter Perspectives and Common Experiences

• Polling initiative: What do voters need to be healthy?
  • Voters dislike health care jargon but have clear ideas about health.
• Shared consensus across diverse groups on spending priorities:
  • More focus on housing and food than on direct medical care.

The Larger Implications

• Health care change is slow and insufficient.
• Need to ask the right questions about health and resources.
• Voters across demographics agree on basic health needs.

Personal Reflections and Conclusions

• Speaker's personal experiences with family underline importance of income and basic needs for health.
• Call to Action:
  • Health care executives need to understand patient struggles beyond illness.
  • Politicians should align with voter understanding of health.
  • Citizens should demand accountability based on shared knowledge and experience.
• Ultimately, there’s potential for agreement and progress if we change our questions and listen to each other.
• The focus should be on common sense and shared experiences to drive change.