If I was running for president, my platform would be: Health Reform more than Health Care ReformI watched the conclusion of the Democratic Convention last night and was overwhelmed with the enormity of the event – the venue and the participation of so many patriotic Americans searching for a change in leadership, economics, taxation, and foreign policy. I was impressed with Barack Obama and his speech. I generally am not a person who is “into” politics – but I do have my own set of values, opinions and dreams for America and I am searching for a presidential candidate who can match up with at least a couple of them. A big issue for me is what is called “health care reform”. Kind of a no-brainer that something has to give – the cost of healthcare is out of control and the control measures that have been implemented to date have not accomplished an effective management of costs. Americans demand more technology and lower cost and expect insurance companies to bail them out of their own bad lifestyle choices with “affordable health care”. Health insurance costs a lot because you are inevitably buying a lot. A headline in my local paper in May read like this, “ Health Insurance Premiums Soar” and the article from the Los Angeles Times described a recent study at the University of Minnesota that “did the math” and concluded that “the cost of health insurance premiums has risen 10 times faster than our incomes.” Who should pay for my health care is the big question – me personally, my employer, a spouse’s employer (if I had one), the government, my retirement fund? ….Somebody? Anybody!!
I can remember back in 1992 (?) when Bill Clinton took office and Hilary decided to tackle this issue. She was very ambitious with her inquiry into the current problem/situation. What ever happened to that initiative? I am not being sarcastic – I don’t know why it was abruptly dropped. I assumed it was even too big a project for Hilary – maybe because there was no congressional support for the endeavor. Whatever, Bill Clinton and his years in the White House compensated for this economic problem to some extent by “pumping up” the economy and getting jobs for a lot of people that gave them access to health care from their new employers. The issue was almost forgotten. But times have changed with the economy and the cost of health care has reared it’s ugly head again. Many of us employed in and through healthcare struggle, too, to provide for our own future health care needs. Our parents struggle even though they have medicare benefits, social security and long-term care insurance that will probably not even be there for us. Well, my perspective on this global problem is pretty simplistic. I am an infection preventionist and so I think the answer lies in prevention of infection and chronic disease. But that would mean major lifestyle changes for most Americans! There is evidence now to show us that we can avoid a myriad of maladies with simple lifestyle changes: Change what we eat, what we drink, avoid smoke – first-hand and second-hand, walk more and drive less (“less dependence on foreign oil” is what the politicians call it), wash your hands, get recommended immunizations, stop depending on medications to remove self-inflicted pain and discomfort. Change your attitude about your health. Respect your body and learn how to care for it yourself. This isn’t the “change” everybody is talking about these days – but I think herein lies the answer to a lot of the economic problems we face. No president can make this kind of change – it is up to each one of us to make these needed changes and help our children to change.
This entry was posted on August 29th, 2008 at 12:00 am. RSS
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