the heathcare future: education

in response to my own posting about the healthcare debate in america, i inadvertently challenged myself. how you might ask? well, i might say, i don't like to simply leave things out there and not further ruminate on them. in short, i haven't stopped thinking about or reading about or, maybe to my own brain-drain detriment, watching coverage about the healthcare reform debate. so i decided recently that i would start a new series of posts concerning the healthcare issue. the title is above so no wasting space on that, but the post-colon space will denote what the subject of the post will be about.

today i tackle education.

americans tend to be terribly educated in my opinion. we educate ourselves based on our special interests, and this is owed largely in part, in my opinion, to our economic system of choice -- hyper-capitalism. hyper-capitalism demands that we all specialize in our niche of the economy in order to achieve maximum efficiency and output. by specializing we are creating more jobs, more job security, and in theory a greater product through emphasized knowledge, market adeptness, and an overall sense of satisfaction that we posses the greatest material goods, at the cheapest price, at questionable quality. as you can probably tell by some tongue in cheek wording here, i think our system breaks down at a point. this does not mean that i think there is some magical alternative out there that is better, simply acknowledging the limited nature of economic systems.

back to the original point -- our education is severely limited. we choose this gleefully in lieu of something more holistic most times. the holistic option takes time, effort, and brain power that we often find little efficiency for -- why in the world should i care about physics or natural science or manufacturing when i am a college administrator? the resulting, often tacit, answer of "you shouldn't. it doesn't get you any further in your professional field." is exactly the problem when it comes to healthcare reform.

in order for us to achieve something tenable in the future, we need better healthcare education. i am not even considering at this point insurance coverage, claim, and navigation education although that would be great! what i am advocating for is better education about what it means to claim healthcare for yourself. and because that was a foundationally circular argument, i will clarify. we need to be better educated about healthy living. it is my hope that through more holistic undertakings of educating ourselves about healthy lifestyles, our overall health as a nation will rise.

i long lived in one of the alternating "fattest cities in america" - dallas. i once read that where i lived in dallas, us75 and lovers ln. for those taking stocking...or stocking in general..., was the single most densely populated area in the country for restaurant to human population. so needless to say, i had all the options i could ever want, most of them with portions and food options no more healthy for me than eating ice cream every night for dinner...which isn't a bad choice every once in awhile. i lamented the fact that i was an active young adult often times in that city, and i felt city-conscious about our label. but while i can lament all i want, i also know that all those options didn't stop me from pursuing a healthy lifestyle. i ran, exercised, balanced my schedule as best i could, and created time for developing relationships with friends.

you see too many of the ways in which we run into healthcare problems for people seem to be totally preventable. we just care not to talk about those things and educate ourselves and others, because we are afraid to offend those who might be in the audience. as someone who worked in the church for three years and has preached from the pulpit a number of times, i know a thing or two of being warned not to offend people with the truth of our circumstance.

so i am calling for a holistic healthcare education that helps people make healthy choices in life. this means that all parts of life are affected. we must be willing to learn about what makes working healthy. we must be willing to learn about what makes relationships healthy. we must learn about why spirituality is a healthy outlet for people. we must also learn about un/healthy eating habits, un/healthy economic choices, and un/healthy material choices that adversely affect ourselves and most importantly others.

there is no magic bullet. there is no one plan of education that will change the way people think or interact with one another, but if we can begin to change the way we think about healthcare, mainly as a specialized field owned by doctors, researchers, and drug companies, we might be able to begin to grasp what possibilities there are for holistic healthcare education that makes a difference in the lives of those around us.

one tired, oft quoted, and unfortunately true cliche comes to mind that seems to exemplify the problem in america: europeans often criticize americans of "living to work instead of working to live". are we willing to sacrifice a slice of economic efficiency for more holistic and healthy lifestyles that benefit more than ourselves? i certainly hope so.

an open letter of delinquency

i am late. i am in debt and feel as though i have failed to do my duty. in debt to whom? i know not, but i feel it down deep in my soul.

life has been crazy in the past two months. the wife and i moved into our very own first home. it was exciting and stressful and far too hot to be moving heavy stuff, but it was rewarding. we love the house. we also had our twin boys! that was exciting and terrifying all at once.

and in all of this i have neglected this space. but i have been thinking of things to write about...so onward...

health care. oh man has this been a boiling point and hot topic. the president delivered his reform proposal last night, and it was, in my estimation, well thought out and comprehensive. i along with others do have questions about immigrant populations and the coverage hole with these populations and overall cost of the program. but i don't want to get into the specifics of what plan would be most effective because it is a far more complicated issue than the media, the politicians, and the public are making it out to be. on this point i want to elaborate.

the health care brouhaha has been decidedly reductionist. one side is content to throw stones at the other and vice versa. and the stones that are being thrown greatly distort the truth of the claims the others are making and more than anything are simply simplistic versions twisted to make the other side look insensitive and evil. perhaps this isn't anything to be concerned about...washington being washington...except that we are on the world stage, or at least we like to think we are...right...i mean...this is AMERICA...and well we set the world stage much less stand on it (if you haven't caught my sarcasm yet, feel free to take note now). and whether or not other countries care about what we have to say about health care (i surmise we overestimate our importance), the fact remains that millions of americans go without health care or health care insurance coverage because of decisions they have to make about putting food on the table versus paying a premium every month. and this is precisely the crux of the issue for me.

we have failed to remember that we are talking about and to human beings. and we have failed to claim any sort of civility in this process. since when did we decide that having differing opinions about policy give us the right to degrade, disrespect, or dehumanize other individuals? why do we feel the need to simply discount one perspective or another on the basis of party affiliation or worse yet false ideological claims put into people's mouths on either side of the aisle? i could probably live the rest of my life without hearing how anyone is going to bring socialism to any country without even a cursory understanding or proper use of the term socialism in the context of any sentence. i could also live the rest of my life without needing to hear about how uncivil town hall meetings become because someone believes so "passionately" about an issue. passion is not an excuse to berate another individual.

perhaps as americans we should take note of our own behavior in treating one another as sub-human and not be shocked when other countries find us to be inhospitable, unfriendly, uncaring, or maybe even dumb (to use a third grade insult). i feel like if anything, this issue alone has proved to me that those critics from outside our borders are probably more right than wrong.

i believe in order to come to an agreement about this issue, we must reclaim what it means to be civil. we will also have to be willing to come to the table and agree to compromise. americans suck at grace in the face of defeat, even when we all lose on some things and all win on other things. health care and insurance coverage are something that every individual should have full access to in my opinion. there are a number of different creative and perhaps risky ways to achieve this, but it seems silly to me in a country where we have abundant resources and material wealth that responsible people should have to make a choice between health care for themselves and their loved ones and food or shelter.

finally, as a note to those who claim to be followers of christ. i have never been more disappointed at the way we have represented ourselves in this debate and, in general, in the past and present political cycle. for people who claim to love and honor the dignity and humanity of others, i have seen little in the way of charity or respectful/constructive criticism of political ideology. i find this especially to be true in the way in which people talk about the president. the names, claims, and general language around the use of his name, the images associated with him, and disrespectful things said about him lead me to several conclusions. the first is that people who are not christian have a right to claim and believe that we do not indeed care about other people as we so often, emptily, claim to love others. second, we are called to be a people who look beyond petty affiliations and honor the humanity in another individual, even if we disagree with them ideologically, politically, or religiously. third, we are called to be a people that cares for one another and others without question. it is sad that i do not see more creative response from communities of faith in the face of a failing health care system. and lastly, if we want to be taken seriously by others we must first take them seriously. i believe our first response should not always be to legislate morality, rather that we should first want to answer for the humanity, dignity, respect, and love that we claim to show others. too often we leave these out of the conversation when they are the most significant pieces of the puzzle.

to my friends who are not christian, i sincerely apologize for the way we too often are delinquent in the claims we make as followers of christ and for failing to honor the dignity, respect, and love others deserve for nothing more or less than their humanity. we have failed to be the people we have claimed to be, and we treated others with disdain, disgust, and crudeness out of our own ignorance and self-righteousness. unfortunately i cannot change those things or make people act differently. what i can do though is promise that one person does not speak for the whole and one set of actions does not represent the hearts of all.