What do American Health Care and Soviet Fire Fighters have in common?

I am getting a lot of messages with polarized opinions about the health care reform. I want to point out one of the reasons why the current "system" is ridiculous and unsustainable.

Doctors are paid more to do procedures, and significantly less to just use their brain power for a diagnosis. (Granted, there is also at least one malpractice attorney behind every bush waiting to see you NOT do something which might have helped the patient.) Therefore, the more procedures they do, the higher their pay. Do you see anything wrong with this picture?

Once upon a time, Russian fire fighters were paid by the hour for the time they spent extinguishing fires. And - surprise, surprise - fires became a lot longer and more devastating. Hope you see the analogy here.

I think in the argument about health care we forget that the goal of a good health care system is not to provide people with unlimited and immediate access to all available tests and procedures, not to spend the most money for treatments, but to provide better quality of life, and to increase life expectancy of the citizens. Yes, Americans get the most tests, heart catheterizations, colonoscopies, elective surgeries, etc., but they still live less than people in Europe do, and outcomes of most diseases are worse over here than over there. We are behind every developed European country in those two respects. End of story.

The myth of American superiority in health care is greatly exaggerated. Tough pill to swallow, my fellow Americans, I am sure. But once you get it down, you will feel better.

(By the way, a common misconception also is that doctors somehow benefit financially from the drugs they prescribe - that is, a doctor gets a higher kick-back for prescribing name brand drugs, and a lower one for generics. This is absolutely not true. Unless your doctor is also your pharmacist, he or she is not materially interested in how many and which drugs you get.)