with Mike Rice

Simmon L. Wilcox, M.D.
BestLife Health Center at Green Valley Spa

Recently we asked Dr. Wilcox to share his thoughts with us about America’s national health care system. The following is his vision for the future of medicine.

“Americans go to the doctor’s office to purchase health care. Unfortunately they leave with an inferior product: “Managed Care” not health care.

The World Health Organization ranked the quality of health care received by U.S. citizens ranked 21 on the comparative list of health care received by citizens of various nations throughout the world.

Upon further interpretation, it becomes apparent that individuals who live in nations less developed than the United States are actually healthier than those of us that live in the United States.

Conservatively, 50% of all our health care issues are directly related to the food we ingest. The new government must carry the responsibility to ensure that food manufacturers place labels that accurately reflect the harmful content of the product, particularly when it behaves like poison in our bodies. At minimum, the labels should read “this food may be hazardous to your health.”

The government must stop supporting the deliverance of toxic food to our children while they are in school.

Ultimately, quality health care cannot be delivered if patients continue to be shuffled to a different doctor every year simply based upon the cheapest insurance package available to one’s employer.

The American Health Care system must be reengineered. We cannot simply superimpose new management on the old health care structure. That would be equivalent to simply rearranging the chairs on the deck of the ship known as the “Titanic” and expecting to change the ultimate outcome.

Americans need a new Health Care paradigm!

The new American Medical system must divorce itself from the “Sick Care system” we presently endorse. In this new system, patients must take responsibility for the micromanagement of their health care.

The future of American Medicine is about to change. I agree with the intent to ensure that every American has access to health care and medication. Ultimately, this process results in lower health care costs for all of us.

I applaud the mandate to computerize our health care system, particularly within our physician’s offices. Clearly this will: a) reduce the medical errors and associated deaths. b) afford physician’s treating patients (who they don’t know) who seek urgent/emergency care the opportunity to rapidly access medical records, thus providing markedly improved care.

Personally, I envision a system where doctors do not receive reimbursement for simply managing diabetes, hypertension, and cardiac disease. This format results in individuals spending 80% of their health care dollar in the last twenty four months of their life, yet still die by the seventh decade of life. I consider this to be a premature death.

The new paradigm for American medicine should reward physician’s who:

1. Effectively cure or prevent hypertension and cardiac disease.
2. Extend the life of their patients beyond the tenth decade without the requirement of a nursing home and with the ability to perform basic tasks of daily living.
3. Embrace traditional medicine in concert with the best that holistic medicine has to offer.
4. Offer optimal hormonal supplementation, i.e. Testosterone, Estrogen, Progesterone, etc. to all individuals beginning in their third decade.
5. Routinely perform toxic metal screening beginning at seven years of age.
6. Provide vitamin and herbal supplementation by the second decade of life.
7. Treat obesity beginning in the first decade of life.
8. Provide intense nutritional education to parents and children.

The intensity and passion that has emerged to save the environment through the current “Go Green” campaign must be replicated and applied to the challenge of reengineering the current health care system.”

This will ensure that our future health will match our future environment.

Simmon L. Wilcox, M.D.
Board Certified Family Physician
Certified in Age Management