During these difficult times, many do not have health care coverage and continue for years to hurt due to the unavailability of affordable treatment. Problems get worse until it becomes an emergency, or even worse, when it is too late to help.
The people who are affected are not strangers; these are our neighbor and friends, and even our own family members. These are our mothers who suffer for years with headaches that prevent her from enjoying fully the family. Father’s who can no longer work because they have been injured, sometimes even at work, and yet never had the proper treatment to bring them back to a level of recovery that would be acceptable. Many do not even seek care for fear of the cost. They just “do not believe there is anything that they can do”, so they do nothing and suffer the consequences.
Children suffer, elderly suffer and yet we have a health care system that says “they are doing the best they can!”. There is enough blame to go around. It is not just the doctors and hospitals that fail to treat, or do a poor job when they do treat, but a systematic process of degeneration that has been developed over the years.
Let us start from the top and work our way down. We look for the government to set the rules and standards so all may benefit, but they have created a nightmare of rules and regulations that have had an opposite effect. We cannot legislate good health care and should not expect it, but we need to be sure that government is not creating more problems than it solves.
From there we have an educational system that is pathetic. Whether with standards that require an privileged class of professionals, or a lack of common sense which has never been available in out college and university system, but why is it that we are importing thousands of nurses from the Philippines, and other countries, and not educating more of our own?
Why are we importing doctors with different standards, customs, and understandings and place them in positions that are frustrating to the patient seeking care? There is something wrong when we are not producing doctors from our lower and middle class that could most benefit from the education and financial stability.
Then there is business that has had its hand in making health care a mess. Insurance that does not cover, or overpays for worthless procedures and encourages “bandage” care more than preventative. We have a food industry that refuses to accept the blame for marketing their “oversized” meals to a public that is now largely obese, and developing all of the pathologies that come from poor nutrition. We are beginning to address this more, but where have we been for the past 50 years.
Then there is the arrogant attitude of medicine that developed the attitude that they were GODS and should be respected as such. This profession has done more to corrupt itself than just about any other industry. They have “fought off” all newcomers who might have a better idea. They have promoted unnecessary surgery, dangerous drugs, and have developed a proven track record of killing thousands through their mistakes. We should have the finest health care, yet, people go to foreign countries to obtain their services, not just because it is less expensive, but also utilizing new and better ideas and treatment.
Medicine needs to get its house in order before it complains what any other profession is doing wrong. [Remember the story of those who live in glass houses!]
This does not even touch on the cost of hospitalization which is more than have a 24 hour nurse at the Ritz Carlton, and a hell of a lot better food. And then there is “medical equipment” that took its clue from the military paying $10,000 for a toilet seat and is soaking the government health programs and the public without mercy. When challenged they have great defenses, all the way to the bank.
All of this does not take into business who do not care about their employees health, clinics that lie, cheat and still from insurance, and the patients. Nor, does it get into the realm of attorneys who will anything to get paid in the courts whether those being sued are right or wrong in their actions.
All of these companies, professionals, and government are at fault, but responding to the demands of the public, YOU. Yes, you are also at fault. We are the ones who elect our representative and demand they do everything they can for us, regardless of how it affects others. You want to get all you can in a suit with your attorney; you want the doctor to save you from all the abuse you have heaped on your body during a lifetime. You are afraid of death, though you claim to believe in your religion, and expect to live forever at “any cost”, even if it bankrupts our children, the hospital, and the government.
We, ultimately, are responsible for all of these challenges. We need to take action that will allow for the best healthcare for all people and a respect for others and a responsibility for our own actions.
We need to take care of ourselves. It is said that 70% of diseases come from the choices WE make. Just changing the choices we make is a big step forward.
We have done this with smoking. It is no longer an acceptable behavior in most societies. Those who smoke should not expect the rest of society to find a cure from their lung cancer that they have chosen to develop; or the heart condition, emphysema or any of the other diseases related to this CHOICE. Now, when are we going to choose to eat better and to exercise more? We are more willing to spend funds on helping the handicapped than educating ourselves from becoming a “health handicap”* [*one who does things that make them ill, thus not being able to function as a healthy person].
As we all face each day of the rest of our life, I hope we see ourselves in a more responsible light. I hope we are walking more, eating less junk food, thinking more positive thoughts and doing things to be healthier.
“WE THE PEOPLE…. HAVE TO DECIDE AT WHAT LEVEL OF HEALTH THIS SOCIETY WILL CONSIDER FOR THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDREN.”
Dr. Gerald Coy
CHER Foundation
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