healthimprovement

The next big step needs to be health improvement

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic we’ve heard a lot about “underlying health conditions,” which can make a person who catches the virus more vulnerable to experiencing severe symptoms.
How we can do our best to reduce underlying health conditions and improve health status for individuals and populations is something to think about as we look ahead to the state of health care in the U.S. in 2023. There has been more movement in the health care landscape from a reactive to a proactive system, but there needs to be more. COVID surely made that apparent.
In order to have a healthier nation and combat the growing cost of health care services, health plans and health care providers need to take an active role in promoting proactive health improvement. Americans deserve a health care system that supports health in our daily living and doesn’t only fix us when we’re sick. It is the actions we take daily – regarding nutrition, fitness, sleep, mental health, relationships, financial management, and how these are impacted by social determinants – that make up the vast majority of what governs our health and total wellbeing.
Steps forward in 2022
We can take solace in the fact, however, that elected government officials, policy makers and employers are starting to understand that health care is broader than just providing access to reactive sick care. As we start to emerge, somewhat, from the dark COVID cloud, there were some rays of sunshine in terms of progress that health care made in 2022.
Sick care vs. proactive care
Most health systems around the world were designed in the post-World War II era for sick care; not to prevent the onset of disease, but instead to diagnose and treat illness. This “reactive” rather than proactive approach works well with acute diseases, which are short, easily diagnosed and treated with a cure.

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