Something scares me about yesterday, and today. And it’s not primarily what the US Supreme Court said in their ruling that upheld most provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, so-called Obamacare.
What scares me is deeper, and it has to do with how we could come to be here in the first place.
I’ve been a person without health insurance. I’ve been a small-business employer who paid for most of my employee’s health insurance. I’ve been a physician in private practice who had to employ someone to struggle with patient’s insurance companies for payment, and talk with patients about the costs of what their insurance would not pay for. I’ve worked in a large public hospital where the vast majority of patients were on government-sponsored health care. I’ve had a spouse with medical problems and no health insurance to cover the costs. And I’ve struggled to find him a physician that would accept Medicare when he became eligible for that benefit.
SO – I’ve seen this healthcare discussion from many different perspectives. And I can tell you that simply throwing more tax money at the problems in the healthcare system will do very little if anything to improve the health of people in this country.
Yes, government has a place. But government programs can’t make you healthy. Taxing the rich to give health care to the poor can’t make them healthy. And even having the best medical care in the world available will not make anyone healthy.
What scares me about today is the mindset so many people have that says, “As long as someone else is taking care of me, I’m OK.”
They don’t care all that much who is taking care of them – just let somebody else do it. If the government will pay for my healthcare, I don’t need to know anything else. If my employer pays for my health insurance, I don’t care how much it costs. If my health insurance will pay for this particular medication or test or procedure, I don’t even care to know what the cost is.
Health care costs will continue to rise until people take individual personal responsibility for:
- Their own health – living a healthy lifestyle
- Knowing the costs of any healthcare item
- Making their voice heard
I for one am not relying on the government or anyone else to take care of me. I am taking personal responsibility for doing all I can to live healthy today and for the future. That’s no guarantee of good health. But if I DON’T do what is in my power to do, I’m pretty well assured of bad health. And I’m not banking on anybody being there to take care of me!
Your turn: Do you think government programs or health insurance lead to less personal responsibility in the area of health? What would a better option be? I’d love to hear from you.
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Thank you for this. As a person who has been on government health insurance programs, employer-paid health insurance programs, and now is uninsured, I will tell you that I resoundingly take much better care of my health when I have no insurance. When I first learned that President Obama was going to revamp the US’s health care system, I was excited, then progressively discouraged as I realized that there really was no ‘revamp’ occurring. With this latest decision by the Supreme Court, all the commentary I read about it says that premiums will continue to rise, life will continue to be challenging for the poor, and healthcare costs will continue to soar. With all the brilliant minds and billions of dollars spent trying to find a solution, I am wondering if there actually is one at all…
Working in healthcare with a physician who spends a great deal of time educating his patients on healthy lifestyle and how this will directly benefit their health, I am often still surprised at the number of folks who seem to simply not care. They brush off the information provided and continue to ask for a prescription for symptoms.
Sadly, I cannot image how requiring everyone to have insurance is a fix to anything. Whatever happened to working to reduce skyrocketing costs? Most physicians I talk to about this issue have fairly common solution ideas. Is anyone still working on the issue? Or have we as a country devolved into political wrangling masquerading and finger-pointing as a convenient substitute to finding any real solution?
Thank you, RJ. You’re so right: so many people just want a quick fix rather than taking responsibility for making the changes that are within their power to do so.
Congratulations for taking better care of yourself! It will certainly pay off with time. And as far as health care – I don’t believe there are any easy solutions. But the more people who ask questions and keep talking, the better!
Hello Dr Carol! Thank you for your blog so much! I am really happy to listen that doctors like you try to give to people true information about their lifestyle. Your advice to care better about ourself is really wonderfull thing! I am absolutely agree with you that the best way to keep our health is think about our lifestyle, about what we are eat and ect. Of course when the human is ill the medical care and drugs are very important but the first step to be healthy is trying to prevent desease by right lifestyle.
I work as a physician assistent in Russia and our medical care system is basically free. Our patients don’t pay any money for medical care when they go to the doctor. It’s course some problems… Patients think that only doctors responsible for their health and every problem with their health may be solve by pills and injections… It’s wrong… Only personal responsibility for health led to health life.
P. S. I started read your blog a few weeks ago and I really like it! It’s so usefull for me as a medical professional to read doctor’s notices which work in another country. By the way, some problems in our countries are similar. Have a great day!
Personal responsibility is key in so many areas of life. And it’s no different in yoru country than in ours! Thank you for writing.