Is Death The Only Motivator?

It staggers me that so many people are not taking responsibility for their own health, and the health of their children. It seems that it takes a brush with an early death to get people to realize their unhealthy lifestyles are killing them years before necessary. Is they are too lazy, or are they just too stupid? With all the media coverage on health today, I fail to accept that it is lack of knowledge. Maybe its just much easier leaving it to someone else to worry about.

Are we making it too easy having a healthcare system that is focused on sick care rather than health care? A system conveniently there to pick up the pieces at a huge cost to society as a whole.

Recent reports are proving that in spite of vast amounts of knowledge available as to the causes of illness and how our lifestyles are the major contributing factor in this spiralling death penalty, people are just not taking heed.

Will we just have to wait a generation or two to catch up?  I know my own children are both incredibly health and fitness conscious – because they grew up in a household where these things were valued. But one only has to stand in a checkout line to see how many households don’t value health. And unfortunately it seems to be lower socio economic families that are the worst culprits – the very ones that cannot afford healthcare insurance. Trolleys full of colored, sugar laden soft drinks, fast food snacks, high-fat dairy concoctions, fast make french fries, cigarettes….it hurts to go on.

One report that caught my eye was by Regina Herzlinger, someone who clearly is not afraid to call them as she sees them. Regina proclaims “the American health care industry is a bunch of killers”. With more than 30 years of research in the health care industry, I think she probably has a realistic view.

Regina reveals her horror at how mismanaged hospitals are when “science and the doctors were so awesome”. She believes the health care delivery system should be structured around the needs of human beings, not around the needs of the status quo. Which of course, we all know – is around chronic illnesses suffered by people that are too irresponsible to take care of their own health. And other major parties to this conspiracy are the insurance industry, and the government.

In spite of government initiatives such as Market-Driven Health Care (1996) and Consumer-Driven Health Care (2004) managed care is just not working. Michael Moore’s Sicko diagnosed the health care system as “heartless, insensitive, greedy, self-serving status quo” Hospitals, health insurers, employers, U.S. Congress, and academics all interact to make an unresponsive and inefficient system. But the big 3 – the hospitals, the insurers, and the government all want the power to institutionalize their role in the system.

The insurers want a private health insurance system. Hospitals want to control the health care delivery system. The government are micromanaging the payment system. They’re abetted by academics in a centralized, technocratic system of research. Add corporations to the mix, limiting the choice of health care programs for employees and it’s a poor recipe for success.

Come on – Get A Life – Your Life!!  [But of course, you do care, that's why you are reading this blog.] So please, pass this link on to someone who you think needs a wake up call.

Nicola

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1. The Age Bank