I don't know what I was thinking with my last post about the Health and Human Services' Million Hearts initiative. I thought the whole point of this program was to save money. At the time, I was less than optimistic that the government could acurately reach their goal given the problems with many of the principles behind their program. For instance, maybe it was just me, but how typing on an electronic medical record system would save those lives was lost on me.
But at the time, I had no idea this whole campaign was based on fear.
Watch this introductory video I found on the brand new Million Hearts website, all paid for (of course) with your tax payer dollars:
Listen to all that horrible stuff that can happen to you! And they look like such nice, ordinary people. Man, if that doesn't scare you into seeing your doctor, I don't know what will!
I have now seen the light: this is going to be awesome! (* Cha-ching! *)
You know: terrified, low risk people clamoring for an appointment insisting on all kinds of blood draws, testing, EKGs, and sophisticated imaging tests! And for all those tests with false positives, maybe an angio, too! We're about to make a fortune on this program all in the name of "cost savings!" Baby, there's NOTHING like screening low risk people when it comes to making money: Yeeeeeee haaaaaa!
Boys and girls, step right up! Help our heath care system save money, will you? (* Yuck yuck yuck *) After all (wink wink) it's about saving a million lives! You did see that video above, didn't you? No? Make sure you do: this is really BAD stuff!
Boy, no WONDER the American Medical Association, the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, Walgreens, United Healthcare and a whole host of other "private interests" want to support this program: it's not just about the hearts, it's about the Benjamins!
Even better: they're on Facebook and Twitter! (Hope their video goes viral! Pssst: here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/embed/poc1eTuJJfc)
Absolutely, positively, brilliant. (I hope our health care system's marketing team is watching.)
After all, nothing sells like fear.
-Wes
1 comment:
The part that concerns me is that reaching LDL targets in low risk people is a quality measure. I'm not against people choosing to take a statin if fully informed, but a lot of people have no clue how high the NNT is.
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