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Editor's Corner February 2010
Published: Jan 31, 2010
Education & Prevention are Keys to Healthcare ReformHealthcare reform has become a topic that we hear so much about and read about every time we pick up a newspaper or magazine. I have read several versions of the proposed changes coming from Washington including the earlier House Bill, HR 3200. All 1,026 pages of it! Now that the process has moved along we, as Americans know even less about the many versions of legislation proposed. It’s anyone’s guess what will result. Unfortunately it seems to me that the issue has become more about politics than really improving the healthcare system.
In the January 2, 2010 edition of the Austin American Statesman, an editorial by Arthur B. Markman makes some very good points about healthcare. First, he challenges us to take more responsibility for our health as individuals by “taking stock in our own behavior relating to health”. He asks, “are you really doing everything you can to preserve your health for the future? Are you eating right? Taking vitamins? Exercising? Flossing?”
Not a new concept to us as providers of healthcare but he really hits the mark about the need to change behavior. When a majority of our society live lives with little concern for health and have lifestyles that are often far from healthy, do we really expect our government to take care of us when we become ill from a bad lifestyle? Is it possible that one reason the healthcare industry accounts for more than 16% of our gross domestic product is because of the lack of personal responsibility, which results in so much illness? Surely, this is a large contributing factor.
Another important point that Markman makes is that very few people really understand the present healthcare system and that they should make every effort to learn more about how it works in order to make better decisions about healthcare for the future.
Imagine a future with markedly less disease. Imagine far fewer cases of COPD, emphysema, cancer, autoimmune diseases, and obesity. Education is the key. Once the disease is present, the costs of treating it are often enormous and oftentimes too late! Nothing is mentioned about this in any of the current so-called healthcare debate. Yes, Arthur Markman is right when he urges more personal responsibility for our health and an understanding of how the system works. Real reform will come from meaningful lifestyle behavior changes.
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