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Fixin' Healthcare

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

The Lifestyle Chronicles - Pogo Knows

The declining health status and escalating health care cost in America have stimulated many conclusions as to the cause of this situation. Analyzing these conclusions has become a national pastime. Solutions have been proposed but no solution has been found. Bernard Baruch is reported to have said that when shoe-shine boys begin giving stock tips, it is time to sell.

America's health care system gives new meaning to the law of diminishing returns. Perhaps some of the proposed solutions will relieve the situation. However, the greatest influence upon declining health status is lifestyle and that is a product of the culture. America has a culture that generates poor health and the health care system has no impact upon that situation, health insurance notwithstanding.

Of course, the relationship between culture and health has been recognized and dissected six ways to Sunday. Yet, one cannot help but feel the analyses and conclusions are superficial. The root causes of this complex issue are very basic and we may not want to know the answers.

What influence does the community have upon health status of the individual? How does the modern concept of privacy influence the sense of community and health status? What influence does subsidy, abundance and surplus have upon nutrition? How does political privledge contribute to subsidy, abundance and surplus? Is the quarter to quarter economic system the result of American psyche, an impact upon American psyche or both?

These are but a few of the thoughts that merit consideration. They can't be any more crazy than expanding the healthcare system as currently structured to cover everybody. Lifestyle is everything a person does all day, everyday and each bit of it influences health status. It was Pogo who said that he had met the enemy, and the enemy is us.

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