Health Care

Concern about the health care crisis seems to always miss the point; the focus is always on how to reduce costs and not enough attention is paid to the underlying reasons for out-of-control health care costs. A major part of the problem is that we, as a nation, feel that we have the right to abuse our bodies anyway we see fit. However, at the same time, we complain about the costs of procedures needed to treat diseases that mainly result from our choices.

Of course, our choices, with respect to food has been somewhat limited by the chemicalization of our food supply and the importation of food from countries with less food safety enforcement. While, one could argue, that our food supply will not kill us in the short term, most of it will definitely impair our health in the long-term, whether we admit it or not. The welcome, small but growing, trend of organic agriculture and more natural food processing techniques is a step in the right direction. However, due to the limited availability and expense (although, if we would eat less, the expense would be mostly mitigated) of this more natural food, many people do not have easy access to it.

Since people do not like to make choices, we should help them make a better choice by taxing the hell out of tobacco products, alcoholic beverages and processed food. The chemicalization of our food supply must be severely reduced or eliminated and replaced with natural methods of farming and food processing. Until we make these changes to our food protection system and our choice-making, any structural changes to the health care system will be meaningless. Our government needs to understand that we won’t tolerate them continuing to allow our so-called “free market” to continue to slowly kill us with bad food, dirty water, dirty air, poisonous tobacco and alcohol products and unnecessary prescription drugs (my restless legs are acting up again). Until we realize that there is a more natural healthy way of living, we are doomed to continue along the same path. I, for one, intend to focus on living healthy instead of living sick and complaining about the health care system. The problem with the health care system is us and the solution is within us.