On numerous fronts, the United States is facing a grave health care crisis as rates of chronic disease are increasing dramatically in comparison to other countries. In the United States:
- 60 percent of Americans have chronic disease
- 40 percent have multiple chronic diseases
- Chronic disease is responsible for 7 in 10 deaths
Our health care systems are inadequately addressing the causes of illness, such as epigenetics, cultural disparities, lifestyle, high stress, and inflammation. Chronic disease is destroying our quality of life and threatening the health of future generations.
One major cause of the crisis is disparity of access to healthcare and inadequacy of treatment options dictated by insurance companies. For those lucky enough to have health insurance, access to healthcare is mediated by insurance companies, which are incentivized to minimize costs. This means patients are limited to the so-called “standard of care,” which fails to quickly incorporate the findings of the last 20 years of medical research. Alternative forms of healthcare, such as preventative and cutting-edge treatments, are rarely, if ever, covered by medical insurance which means most patients with chronic issues will be forced to live with their symptoms to the extent that they can be mitigated by approved pharmaceuticals or surgical procedures.