Thanks Greta, TMorros, Walknred, B Your Best, Beth:
Nice responses. I would hope that Congress does address the private insurance market and make it more competitive as, at the moment, local insurance companies capture vast amounts of revenue and are more interested in their investments than patient care it would seem. They outsource any preventive measures to far distant companies that offer nurses making telephone calls, and then think that a bunch of glossies and telephone calls from afar can get people to be more preventive.
Hogwash! Anything that is dictated more than one level from the patient is wasted. I could care less about the national debate. Bureaucracy is the scourge of the human race as bureaucrats are often strong on arrogance and short on performance. These bureaucrats can be government or insurance. What difference does it make?
Me? I am going to focus on medical nutrition and vascular health. 80% of what the government spends money is directly related to these issues: strokes, heart attacks, many cancers, diabetes and so forth. It has to do with vascular health and inflammation within micro arteries.
The answer is personal care. The answer is personal care within communities to support healthier behaviors and healthier relations and greater meaning in work and play.
In my opinion, primary care physicians should make this kind of initiatives number one. But, there is no training or emphasis on behavior, nutrition, stress management and the like. Government, insurance companies, and conventional physician practices (4-6 mins per patient average) all are upside down on prevention and wellness.
That is why a training course in Personal Care Leadership, zip coded communities with their resources, and like minded practitioners are the answer I believe. How does change happen? It happens because, with some tools and education and people who care about you, that "little engine" starts towards better nutrition, active fitness, and acquiring skills of healthy relationships at work and play.
We just need to have resources in nutrition, like minded practitioners, restaurants, food stores, etc all within our own Personal Care Websites in every zip community. On our website, we need to have good information, recommended practices, and access to resources that are beyond a particular zip. Still, in each of these zip communities we need teachers on Personal Care Leadership. That is already starting.
In my experience people do want to be better; but it is so hard and the system does not help much. In fact, the system blames the patient for (e.g.) obesity and all other behaviors as an excuse to justify status quo of disease care and not change.
So we create our own system. Does all this make sense? Can we start with 89511 and areas? McGee