YOU Can Fix the Health Care Reform Hullabaloo
David L. Katz, MD, MPH
CMO, Tangelo. Founder: Diet ID; True Health Initiative. Founding Director, Yale-Griffin PRC (1998-2019). Health Journalist. COVID Curmudgeon
Ok, so our federal government is shut down, ostensibly over health care reform. That makes it pretty clear that health care is important, and health care reform controversial.
But here’s the thing: the CDC is projecting that should current trends persist, by about the middle of this century, one in three Americans will be diabetic. One in three! That’s over 100 million people. There are only about 27 million diabetics in the U.S. today, and already medical coverage is a contentious enough issue to shut down our federal government.
But, let’s be blunt. The whole argument over so-called “health care” reform is moot if one in three of us is going to be diabetic. There is simply no way to pay that bill. If we think coverage is a challenge now, just wait and see what life is like then.
Or not. Let’s not wait. Let’s not find out how terrible life can be when one in three of us succumbs to a serious, potentially disabling chronic disease at ever younger age. Let’s not see what it’s like when disease care costs suck up our entire GDP. Let’s not give our kids THAT future. Let’s just fix this.
What we need is true HEALTH care reform. I’m a doctor, and I say with no shame that by and large, what we call a “health” care system is, in fact, a disease care system. It’s important just the same; when you get sick, you need me and my colleagues. At times, we all need clinics or hospitals or drugs or surgery.
But health isn’t built in hospitals; disease is treated there. Health is built every day, over the course of a lifetime, in the places we work, and learn, and play, and pray, and love, and live. Or it isn’t. And if it isn’t, the “health care” system can’t fix it. It can’t make us healthy. It can treat disease, and often quite well. It can forestall death, and often impressively, if at high cost. But it can’t build health and vitality. That power resides with you.
And the power is nothing less than stunning. If you were to exercise the latent power in your hands, you could slash your lifetime risk of ALL major chronic diseases- diabetes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, dementia, and more-by 80%. The science to back this up is voluminous, consistent, and not even controversial. You can do this for yourself, and your children. You can do this, and pay it forward to those you love. And, so could every other family.
And if enough families took the steps to disease-proof ourselves, there would be 80% less chronic disease in our society. The evidence suggests that simply applying what we already know could eliminate at least 90% of diabetes specifically. So now, instead of trying to pay for the care of 80 million MORE diabetics, we would have 24 million FEWER. With the money we would save as a nation treating 24 million fewer diabetics, the challenges of health care coverage would dry up and blow away. Our government could pay its bills, and do its job.
But only if we do ours. Who, if not you, is going to build your health? Sorry, but doctors don’t do that; we can’t. It’s you, or it’s no one.
But that’s not fair if you don’t know how. There is a skill set involved in converting the science of disease prevention into actions you and your family can take every day. That skill set is accessible. If you want it, you can have it.
If great responsibility comes with great power, then taking responsibility requires being empowered. You can be empowered to take responsibility for your health if you are so inclined.
We truly do have the opportunity to slash our personal lifetime risk of any serious chronic disease by 80%. We truly have the opportunity to pay that forward to our children, and share it with those we love. And collectively, if enough of us do this for personal reasons, we have the opportunity not merely to reform the health of our nation, but to revolutionize it.
True “health” care reform resides not with our fractious Congress, but with us and our families. What do you plan to do about it?
-fin
Disease-Proof is available at bookstores nationwide and at:
Dr. David L. Katz; https://www.davidkatzmd.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dr-David-L-Katz/114690721876253
https://twitter.com/DrDavidKatz
https://www.dhirubhai.net/pub/david-l-katz-md-mph/7/866/479/
Photo: aaron belford/Shutterstock.com
I agree with Doctor Katz, personal accountability is no red herring, it is part and parcel to the healthcare discussion.
Chief Operations Officer - Managing Partner
11 年This is an excellent article on empowering ourselves to lead healthier lives. I not only agree with Dr. Katz's analogy of our nation having a Disease Care system instead of a Health Care one, but i will personally try to live healthier myself. All that being said however, I fail to see how this article relates to President Obama's Health Care Reform Act. Is the distinguished Doctor suggesting that if we all led healthier lives perhaps we would not need Health Insurance, or that perhaps our insurance premiums (including his malpractice premiums) would automatically be less? Unless either of the above statements are true, I find the entire "YOU can fix the the Health Care Reform Hullabaloo" article way off point. It is my understanding that the Affordable Care Act, was based on the premise of helping a vast number of US taxpayers pay for their health care premiums. As it turned out however, it was reduced to: "Here you go folks, your medical insurance premiums will be lower now, but our government will have to subsidize the difference simply because the Insurance industry refuses to lose sales by lowering their premiums... Oh and by the way, we couldn't quite agree on how we would pay for this premium reduction, so we effectively shut down your government for 2 weeks, arguing over it..." I have read several articles and blogs comparing our Health Care system with that of other "civilized"/"advanced" societies such as Norway, Sweden, England, etc. In fact, I recently saw an article stating that the average individual Health Care insurance costs in the US being double that of the above mentioned European countries. While I cannot verify or defend the truth of those numbers, I am also not interested in migrating to any of those countries. What I do know, is that Health Care in those nations is highly regulated by their respective governments. I also know that the "high income bracket" citizens in those countries are taxed at rates unfathomable in the United States. The US Insurance industry (along with the Banking, Oil, and Automobile ones) are the proverbial heart and soul of the US economy and as such, they are not only in the business of delivering profit to their stakeholders, but more importantly in the business of protecting the status quo of their operating environments. Granted, you and I may never know how powerful these industries are, but I can assure you that every US President since Ronald Reagan (perhaps even since Eisenhower) was and is intimately aware of it, which in turn should (and not in so many words) explain why these industries will only be "pseudo-regulated" by our government and which finally brings us to where we are today. Dr. Katz, I probably will not be "helping to start a revolution" mostly because, my personal shortsightedness makes me part of the problem. However, I cannot speak about my children or grandchildren. All I can tell you is that if World History has taught us anything, it has taught us that when a nation gets "fed-up" with governments and injustice, revolutions are inevitable. I am not a gambler by any means, but if I had to bet on a revolution happening in our country, my nickel says it happens a lot sooner than the US diabetic population reaching 80 million. -The end -THE END Sent from my iPhone.
Chairman of the Board at The Palestinian Society for the Psychological Rehabilitation and community
11 年Good evening: The Palestinian Society for Rehabilitation psychological and community, we are charity care to rehabilitation and psychological community for women and children as well as young people and the elderly in a crisis situation, and also dealing with civilians for rehabilitation of the integration of the community to become people who are actors to serve their community, as well as care Bbtii learning and disabled people to faith in them that they are an integral partfrom the community and we are working on the development of all remaining abilities through programs to increase the effectiveness of the self. We charity from Gaza and we are honored that we cooperate together to serve the finest and the best results. D.Ahmed Saad