North Carolina is the NASA headquarters for high-quality health care

Everyone knows how expensive health care and health care insurance have become over the past half-century. It is an escalation that began in the 1980s far exceeding the general rate of inflation in the overall economy.

So far, there have not been very many public policy or business changes that have made a significant or even appreciable impact on driving health care costs downward.

However, there is one thing upon which we can and should agree, even if it doesn’t usually come up in public conversations. For all the increase in costs, the ability of American physicians to diagnose and treat even the most obscure and dangerous illnesses is at the top of the list, and we should all be thankful for that.

And at the top of that list are doctors and hospitals located in North Carolina. We should all be thankful we live in a state where even the most serious health conditions are within a drive or a Medivac flight to an institution that can treat them.

Recent conversations with close friends have underlined this point. They asked how I was doing after my recent health scare, to which I replied, “I am doing much better day by day, but thank God we live in a state where emergency technicians, doctors and nurses know what to do, and then the specialists know what to do to help bring about full recovery.”

Two of those friends revealed they are going to have surgery in the coming weeks for health conditions that are not completely rare but hard to diagnose properly and swiftly. After some intense research, both found specialists willing to see them at Duke Medical Center, UNC or WakeMed, and all of them conveyed the sort of confidence and assurance that the patient would be fine in a matter of weeks and months. After weeks of worry and consternation, such words from accomplished experts gave enormous amounts of relief and comfort to the patient and their families. Most importantly, they offered an enormous degree of hope that their plight would soon be at an end, and they could look forward to returning to a normal course of life in the near future.

Try to imagine living in a state or region of the country without such access to such experienced, trained experts in a particular health field or discipline. One other friend remarked after hearing of these two comments, “Good grief, you are so fortunate to live in such an area with access to such high-quality health care. The Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area for health care is like NASA headquarters was for physics, engineering and space flight in the 1960s after President Kennedy said America would land on the moon by the end of the decade. Heck, I don’t know why I would consider moving to Florida or elsewhere when I could move back home and know that if something goes wrong with my health, I would be right in the area where someone could help me almost immediately!”

It is something to take seriously and be reminded of regularly. We who live in the RTP area are blessed with such access, but so are people who live in the Charlotte and Triad area, plus those who live close to the ECU Medical Center in Greenville. People all over the state are fortunate to have graduates come out of the medical schools in the state and move to all parts of North Carolina to practice and administer what they have learned to needy patients statewide. If any patient needs more advanced care, North Carolina offers these larger medical facilities.

There are still inequities in health care that need to be addressed, such as access to health insurance and affordability, but these problems are solvable if enough serious people address them together in sane and civil discourse.

One thing to think about and hope for is that one day university medical centers, private centers and insurance companies will figure out a way to emulate the NIL system now taking over college athletics and adapt it for developing high-quality talent in health care — not for the NFL or NBA, but for the people of North Carolina in every county. Many med students today receive scholarships and fellowships galore, but imagine a system where people who want to be physicians or nurses can be highly recruited to learn from the great thinkers and practitioners of health care in North Carolina. In return, they could receive a higher salary than currently paid to residents or interns and payment of their student debt, which is often the biggest hindrance to medical school grads considering jobs in any rural area of the state.

It could be viewed as a public service reimbursement similar to the GI Bill, which justifiably pays soldiers to go to college in return for their immeasurable sacrifice and courage defending our country.

Our health care professionals save thousands of lives daily, just as our soldiers do.

Not only is providing the best health care the humanitarian thing to do for fellow citizens, but having North Carolina become as well known for its health care delivery system as Houston became known for the NASA program would be an economic development asset that will last for centuries.