Design #1044
With President Obama pushing his heath care plan to congress with the goal of passing this bill by the end of August, one has to wonder if rushing such a complicated problem through the process is wise. There is no doubt that health care needs reform. Claims are that close to 50 million Americans are without insurance, I say claims because I don’t know whether to believe anything I hear on television anymore. I do know that a large percentage of the country are but one layoff away from being uninsured and those with insurance are having a difficult time paying the premiums and deductibles while the number of procedures that their policy covers dwindles. The cost of medications for some citizens in this country is hundreds of dollars a month and that’s with so called “insurance”. This while the drug companies continue to make record profits.
I question whether the government is capable of creating a system to handle the heath care needs of this country in such a short period of time. A mistake at this point could be the straw that breaks the camels back in regard to our long term economy. It seems we have piled enough of a tax burden on the backs of our children, but only time will tell. I have no choice but to have faith in our politicians. They have kids and grandchildren as well and I can only hope they will make the right decisions.
One thing I know for sure is that we have to start looking at health care in a different way, which brings me to the point of this post. Doctors and health care specialists need to work towards reducing disease by promoting preventative medicine through education. No more letting the drug companies control health care in this country, it’s much more cost efficient to work towards preventing diabeties and cancer rather than padding the pockets of drug companies by treating patients after they have developed these diseases.
We need to get back to basics, our bodies are not garbage disposals in which we should dump Big Macs, fries and sugary soda’s into on a daily basis. Our kids need nutritious, well rounded meals to fuel their bodies, not the crap they are serving in school lunch rooms these days. Pizza, cheeseburgers and preprocessed foods are not going to turn our children into healthy adults. I even think it might be time to tax these unhealthy food options and provide food subsidies for healthy foods like fresh fruits and vegetables so that average consumers can afford to buy them. Watch any struggling single mom at the grocery store and her purchases are not made by what might be the healthiest choice but more likely by what she can afford. Same thing with fast food, it’s not just popular because it’s fast, but because it’s cheap. Education and making healthy choices available to all is a big factor in reducing health care costs in the long term.
Last and by no means least is for this nation needs to get off the couch. Exercise goes hand and hand with nutrition in keeping a human being healthy. Instead of insurance companies paying for someone’s anti-depression medication, maybe they should be sent to a gym where they could receive supervised exercise program. Something as simple as putting walking partners together or having a exercise coach motivating a patient could provide a relief from depression while increasing their overall health without the risk of long term drug addiction. So, if your reading this and you’re wondering how you can decrease your health costs, ask your doctor if getting off your ass is right for you.
