Health Care Solutions

Health Care Solution: Personal Responsibility

The future of our health care is uncertain at best. We all agree that there is a problem. Actually, we agree that there are many problems with the current system. The rising costs and inconsistent coverage are just two of the concerns, but enough in to have many alarmed. So what is the biggest problem?

We are. That’s right; we are the biggest problem in the health care system. We each have choices as to how we live. We choose whether our habits are healthy or unhealthy. We choose to do everything that we do, until it is time for care. Then we leave it up to the system. The system is now responsible for fixing or managing your condition. Was the system responsible for your habits? Did the system make choices for you all of these years? No it didn’t.

Health Care Solution: Personal Responsibility

Now, as I stated in the last article, I think the system should help you live a healthy lifestyle. We should emphasize the importance of wellness and facilitate the habits that will lead to positive changes in our health as a whole. Just because that is not the way health care works now, doesn’t mean that we can’t make those choices now.

It is up to us, not the system, to manage our health on a day to day basis. If we manage our health, we are able to prevent many conditions. We are able to avoid the pain and suffering, costs and complications of reactive medical care. If we don’t manage our health, what do we end up with? We end up with all of the problems we have now. We end up with multiple epidemics that are costing us all billions of dollars.

The worst part about this scenario (worse than the reality and severity) is that we chose it. We chose to ignore our health and leave it in the hands of the system. We chose the unhealthy habits that have lead to all of these epidemics and we have relied on the system to react.

Now that we see the results of a system caring for people that aren’t caring for themselves, we are alarmed. We feel that we are paying too much and that we need better care. When in reality, we already have access to better and cheaper care. It’s called personal responsibility. By taking ownership of our health, we are improving the system. By being responsible and managing our own health we are taking much of the burden off of that system.