If there is such a thing as the best time and place to ever have lived, I think I've lived it. As a kid I never met anyone with cancer, or anyone who contracted a fatal disease like small pox, tuberculosis or yellow fever. Everyone who was capable of working did, and there was enough money left over to take care of those who couldn't. It seemed anything was possible in a world bursting with abundance.
Then a couple years ago while raising money to help families with critically ill children, I had to take off my rose tinted glasses. It seemed increasingly more and more families were struggling with critically ill family members. Sixty one percent of bankruptcies in the United States are now due to medical expenses. People are struggling just to take care of their own families.
Often I would make dietary suggestions like cutting back on sugar and eliminating all foreign chemicals like msg, food dyes, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fats, and basically anything made in a lab. Most of the time they would try it for a while and then say if it wasn't guaranteed to fix them they just weren't going to follow through. Sometimes I would suggest someone try exercise, therapy, acupuncture, herbs, and/or manipulation before they resorted to drugs or surgery for non-life threatening ailments. Many times I heard, "I can't because my insurance doesn't pay for that, and it's too expensive".
I believe health care reform is not creating a society that expects to be taken care of, but creating a society that takes responsibility for their own health. There are two types of people who take responsibility for their own health.
The first group of people are those who have gone to the doctor (usually several), did what the doctor told them, and did not get any better. These people often become desperate for answers and willing to try just about anything to feel better. This group of people either grow resentful of "a system that doesn't work", or become part of the next group.
The second group of people are those who don't expect someone else to fix them. This group includes people who do everything within their own ability to maintain good health. They usually research any herb, drug, or new food they plan to put into their bodies. They wouldn't go have surgery unless there was no other viable option, and will research all possibilities. They do not expect their doctor to fix them, but to offer guidance.
Some people take care of themselves naturally, while others do so because of their circumstances. People who do not have insurance will often research alternatives because they are less expensive. People who live in countries with socialized medicine often take more responsibility for their own health because they have to wait for months and sometimes years before a procedure will be covered by their national health care. And most obvious of all, if you become unhealthy you usually try to live healthier.
I believe our health care today is much like an American child who gets upset because they only own a single pair of new shoes. In many other countries a child would feel blessed and grateful beyond words to own a single pair of used shoes. So many children in America leave their old shoes lay behind, because they have or can easily get another pair. I look forward to the day when people take care of their health before it goes bad, because they realize we only have a single pair of shoes to take care of. The best made shoes come from someone who creates that great shoe from their own need. Sometimes we have to lose what we have to appreciate it.
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