I grew up hearing my mom tell us kids "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." This was usually in reference to washing hands, keeping clean, covering coughs and other common sense things to prevent the spread of illness. I'm sure I am not the only one who grew up hearing this and many other old adages. After all, those are the kinds of things passed on from generation to generation that our moms heard from their moms and who heard it from their moms and so on. Our parents passed on to us some basic common sense things to help us grow up with their wisdom that would help us to grow into adults who could then pass those things along to our children, grandchildren and on and on. So given that probably every child heard from their parents that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, what boggles me is how some folks don't want certain people to have access to health care services and how some folks seem to think that our current for-profit system of private health care insurance is OK when it is anything but that. My current health care plan does not pay for all preventive services so I haven't received certain screenings that my doctor says I need since I am over 50 now. I can ill afford, on an income where I haven't received a dime's raise in 6 years, to pay for expensive screenings and tests. My insurance also doesn't pay for the lift I need on all of my left shoes since, as a result of a long ago car accident, my left leg is one and a half inches shorter than my right leg. So every pair of shoes I buy requires that I spend an additional $200 to pay for the necessary lift work I need that is also a prescription from my orthopaedic surgeon. I don't get it. Insurance companies would rather pay more money for expensive treatments to pay for things they do not cover instead of paying a small amount for preventive screenings and things like lifts for shoes. It defies logic.
Don't you think that they are ever looking at their bottom line and wanting to maximize their profits? So why pay for someone to have to undergo expensive cancer treatment for colon cancer instead of paying for people to have colonoscopies that could both prevent cancer and catch cancer at its earliest stage when it is cheaper to treat? It makes no sense. Why not shell out $200 for me to have a lift attached to my left shoes instead of dealing with what would happen if I suddenly couldn't afford to pay for that and would have to walk around with uneven legs? This stuff makes no sense to me. I'm all in favor of a single payer health care system that would give everyone access to health care, including mental health care, dental and vision care. I don't get why people are so afraid of that. They fear the loss of choice of doctors and hospitals and they fear rationing of care, but let me lay that fear to rest right now: We already have rationed health care. It's called managed care that tells you what doctors you can see and what hospitals you can use. I can't just go to any doctor, they have to be "in network" in my managed care plan. I can't just go to any hospital I want, it has to be "in network". To me, that's rationed health care. Most people I know are in a managed care plan and yet they complain that single payer health care would mean rationed health care, which is a bunch of bunk. Perhaps they fear that with everyone having access to health care that it would take longer to see a doctor or to have a "procedure". Well, we fix that by training
more doctors and nurses and encouraging medical students to go into primary care instead of a specialty. Too many people right now would rather see a specialist first instead of using their primary care doctor. Well, I remember the day when my family doctor that we used when I was growing up did it all: orthopaedics, obstetrics, gynecology and more. Our family doctor delivered my two younger siblings. Fortunately, none of us ever broke bones growing up so he never had to set a broken arm or anything but had that happened to any of us, he would have been there to do that. Now, your primary care doctor sends you to a specialist who might send you to a sub-specialist. I have three orthopaedic doctors: one for my knees, one for my ankles and feet, and one for my hands. Geez, whatever happened to a general orthopaedist who could do it all? I also have an ear, nose and throat specialist. No wonder our health care system is so broken. You can't just see your family doctor for everything they used to treat. You've got these expensive specialists who charge an arm and a leg for their services and my insurance deductible is now $4000 so I do everything in my power to avoid seeing doctors now because if they want to run tests, I can't afford to pay for them. I mostly self treat my ailments now using alternative/herbal remedies that can be bought over the counter cheaply. You just about have to be your own doctor now if you want to avoid paying steep medical bills. Fortunately, aside from some nagging arthritis in my knees and hands, I am in very good health and am rarely ill. I'd like to lose 20 pounds and that's getting harder now that I am in my mid-50s, but even if that weight never comes off, I'm in good health aside from arthritis that I am treating with oral doses of glucosamine and chondroitin and fish oil. It seems to be working and I am in far less pain nowadays. Staying active also helps. I am an avid hiker and now that fall is here and the weather is cooling, I'm taking to the trails on those very rare days that it doesn't rain (spring and fall in NE Ohio means tons and tons of rain and few warm dry days, unfortunately). Physical activity is one of the best things for arthritis. I'm doing my level best to keep my health care costs down but in this country, we need to focus our health care system on prevention instead of treating people after they get sick. Prevent sicknesss first and then maybe we will bring down our spiraling out of control health care costs. Until we can focus on prevention first, our health care system will continue to be the most broken and the most expensive in the world. Teach our health care professionals that the adage that their moms told them about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure isn't just one of those little aphorisms that mom taught us but instead is good old fashioned common sense, something that seems to be lacking in our country for too long now.
I grew up hearing my mom tell us kids "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." This was usually in reference to washing hands, keeping clean, covering coughs and other common sense things to prevent the spread of illness. I'm sure I am not the only one who grew up hearing this and many other old adages. After all, those are the kinds of things passed on from generation to generation that our moms heard from their moms and who heard it from their moms and so on. Our parents passed on to us some basic common sense things to help us grow up with their wisdom that would help us to grow into adults who could then pass those things along to our children, grandchildren and on and on. So given that probably every child heard from their parents that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, what boggles me is how some folks don't want certain people to have access to health care services and how some folks seem to think that our current for-profit system of private health care insurance is OK when it is anything but that. My current health care plan does not pay for all preventive services so I haven't received certain screenings that my doctor says I need since I am over 50 now. I can ill afford, on an income where I haven't received a dime's raise in 6 years, to pay for expensive screenings and tests. My insurance also doesn't pay for the lift I need on all of my left shoes since, as a result of a long ago car accident, my left leg is one and a half inches shorter than my right leg. So every pair of shoes I buy requires that I spend an additional $200 to pay for the necessary lift work I need that is also a prescription from my orthopaedic surgeon. I don't get it. Insurance companies would rather pay more money for expensive treatments to pay for things they do not cover instead of paying a small amount for preventive screenings and things like lifts for shoes. It defies logic. 
Don't you think that they are ever looking at their bottom line and wanting to maximize their profits? So why pay for someone to have to undergo expensive cancer treatment for colon cancer instead of paying for people to have colonoscopies that could both prevent cancer and catch cancer at its earliest stage when it is cheaper to treat? It makes no sense. Why not shell out $200 for me to have a lift attached to my left shoes instead of dealing with what would happen if I suddenly couldn't afford to pay for that and would have to walk around with uneven legs? This stuff makes no sense to me. I'm all in favor of a single payer health care system that would give everyone access to health care, including mental health care, dental and vision care. I don't get why people are so afraid of that. They fear the loss of choice of doctors and hospitals and they fear rationing of care, but let me lay that fear to rest right now: We already have rationed health care. It's called managed care that tells you what doctors you can see and what hospitals you can use. I can't just go to any doctor, they have to be "in network" in my managed care plan. I can't just go to any hospital I want, it has to be "in network". To me, that's rationed health care. Most people I know are in a managed care plan and yet they complain that single payer health care would mean rationed health care, which is a bunch of bunk. Perhaps they fear that with everyone having access to health care that it would take longer to see a doctor or to have a "procedure". Well, we fix that by training 
more doctors and nurses and encouraging medical students to go into primary care instead of a specialty. Too many people right now would rather see a specialist first instead of using their primary care doctor. Well, I remember the day when my family doctor that we used when I was growing up did it all: orthopaedics, obstetrics, gynecology and more. Our family doctor delivered my two younger siblings. Fortunately, none of us ever broke bones growing up so he never had to set a broken arm or anything but had that happened to any of us, he would have been there to do that. Now, your primary care doctor sends you to a specialist who might send you to a sub-specialist. I have three orthopaedic doctors: one for my knees, one for my ankles and feet, and one for my hands. Geez, whatever happened to a general orthopaedist who could do it all? I also have an ear, nose and throat specialist. No wonder our health care system is so broken. You can't just see your family doctor for everything they used to treat. You've got these expensive specialists who charge an arm and a leg for their services and my insurance deductible is now $4000 so I do everything in my power to avoid seeing doctors now because if they want to run tests, I can't afford to pay for them. I mostly self treat my ailments now using alternative/herbal remedies that can be bought over the counter cheaply. You just about have to be your own doctor now if you want to avoid paying steep medical bills. Fortunately, aside from some nagging arthritis in my knees and hands, I am in very good health and am rarely ill. I'd like to lose 20 pounds and that's getting harder now that I am in my mid-50s, but even if that weight never comes off, I'm in good health aside from arthritis that I am treating with oral doses of glucosamine and chondroitin and fish oil. It seems to be working and I am in far less pain nowadays. Staying active also helps. I am an avid hiker and now that fall is here and the weather is cooling, I'm taking to the trails on those very rare days that it doesn't rain (spring and fall in NE Ohio means tons and tons of rain and few warm dry days, unfortunately). Physical activity is one of the best things for arthritis. I'm doing my level best to keep my health care costs down but in this country, we need to focus our health care system on prevention instead of treating people after they get sick. Prevent sicknesss first and then maybe we will bring down our spiraling out of control health care costs. Until we can focus on prevention first, our health care system will continue to be the most broken and the most expensive in the world. Teach our health care professionals that the adage that their moms told them about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure isn't just one of those little aphorisms that mom taught us but instead is good old fashioned common sense, something that seems to be lacking in our country for too long now.
1 comment:
Sally, I truly love the voice you have created.
Post a Comment