The health care system in the United States is broken. Proposed fixes abound. But in order to fix the system successfully we must first understand how, why and where it's broken.
Imagine you have a sore knee. You go to see an orthopedist. The orthopedist asks you how the injury happened, how severe the pain is, in what way does it hurt (burning, sharp pain, aching etc.). The orthopedist pushes and pulls your knee into positions you never thought possible. The orthopedist may order x-rays and/or an MRI of your knee. Only after all information from these diagnostic steps has been assembled does the doctor fully understand the problem. Only then can he or she make a diagnosis and prescribe a treatment plan.
Health Care Problems is dedicated to gathering information for the same purpose the orthopedic surgeon gathers information: to make possible diagnosis and treatment of a problem. Unlike the doctor, however, HealthCareProblems.org does not attempt diagnosis or prescription. That's left to the reader. Health Care Problems does the first part of the surgeon's job. It collects information and assembles it for study.
You can participate in two ways. First, you can share your experiences of shortcomings with the current health care system. Your writing will be identified only by your state and your occupation. No other identifying information will be displayed. Second, you can use the information collected on the site to explore how and where the existing health care system fails. Armed with that knowledge, you can more accurately determine ways to fix or rebuild the current system (remember, in a democracy we are all responsible for diagnosing and fixing systems that don't work).
Share Your Experiences Anonymously
If you have an example of a problem with the US health care system and you'd like to share it, go to Write About a Problem. The text you write will be displayed anonymously on the site.
Don't be discouraged if you find many people have written about the same problem you intended to address. What you write will be unique. Readers understand things in different ways, and a reader may understand your writing better than all of the other writing about a given problem. Besides that, the more writing there is about a problem, the easier it is to discern a pattern.
Read About the Problems Others Have Encountered
By reading what others have written you can gain a better understanding of the failures in the U.S. health care system. You are encouraged to use these statements for research and writing about the health care system as long as your use falls within the Terms of Use.
To read what others have written, go to Browse Statements by Category and read statements about health care problems from patients, health care professionals, legal professionals, insurance professionals, and interested observers.