| It is long overdue to challenge the dark | | | | |
| secret about our healthcare system: We are | | | | Then there are the doctors who become red |
| not getting quality healthcare services, and | | | | flags. Some dance with the dark secret of |
| more than 47 million Americans can't afford | | | | unlimited wealth, rather than embracing their |
| any health insurance coverage. | | | | oath to do no harm to others in desperate |
| | | | need of treatment. |
| Poor Americans receive Medicaid, but too many | | | | |
| experience inferior medical care. Also, lots | | | | Our government is a red flag because for too |
| of health care providers and doctors don't | | | | long it has submitted to the will of medical |
| want to accept Medicaid payments, which | | | | lobbyists, insurance corporations, and |
| attempts to place limits on medical charges. | | | | pharmaceutical companies. |
| | | | |
| Retired Americans depend upon Medicare to | | | | Why can't government be more sensitive to the |
| meet medical needs, but there are serious | | | | needs of a majority of Americans buckling |
| gaps and limitations in the coverage. Retired | | | | under the strain of our health care crisis? |
| citizens who are middle class can not afford | | | | |
| to pay for long term care services available | | | | Face Feelings: |
| in nursing care homes or residential care | | | | |
| facilities. | | | | Possibly, the healthcare industry and our own |
| | | | federal government are simply too fearful to |
| Many of our hospitals are managed poorly, | | | | try new approaches to reform and change. |
| have unacceptable mortality and infection | | | | |
| rates, and are depressing places to die in. | | | | I assume they don't want to lose money, |
| The quality of our health care in this nation | | | | power, or influence. It makes me angry to |
| seems to be totally dependent on one's | | | | sense they refuse to face their own dark |
| ability to pay. | | | | secrets. |
| | | | |
| But doctor visits, prescription costs, and | | | | They claim a national health care system |
| high tech surgical care are placing huge | | | | would decrease the quality of health care by |
| financial stressors on everybody. | | | | taking away the profit motive. Of course, |
| | | | they avoid facing the fact that the profit |
| The rich can afford to pay for high medical | | | | motive is precisely the cause of our health |
| costs, the middle class is experiencing | | | | care crisis. |
| inconsistent care, and the poor depend on | | | | |
| what they get in our emergency rooms. | | | | It is sad to think that CEO's of these |
| | | | corporations are making six figure incomes |
| Unfortunately, too many doctors and hospitals | | | | off the suffering of more than 47 million |
| have become so busy that human emotions, | | | | Americans who don't have any health care |
| compassion, and sensitivity have become lost | | | | coverage. How do you really feel about that? |
| in the shuffle. | | | | |
| | | | And why do our political and business leaders |
| Too often, pills, computers, and specialized | | | | seem so reluctant to look at the pros and |
| machines have become substitutes for the | | | | cons of national health systems in Canada, |
| health care professional's time and attitude | | | | the Netherlands, England, Germany and other |
| of tender loving care. It is time that we do | | | | European nations? |
| something positive to reform are whole health | | | | |
| care system. | | | | Can we forgive ourselves for thinking, |
| | | | believing, and pretending that our health |
| Now that we have been honest and open about | | | | care system based on profit is better than |
| the problem, let's go to the next steps on | | | | theirs? |
| The Emotional Recovery Card. (EMC is my | | | | |
| unique life coaching approach to personal and | | | | Admit Powerlessness: |
| social change.) | | | | |
| | | | We do have a sense of being powerless to |
| Stop and Think: | | | | change the system. We remain at the mercy of |
| | | | the insurance companies who cancel our |
| Let's stop approaching health care from the | | | | coverage because we have AIDS, Cancer, or |
| point of view of one's ability to pay or as | | | | some other expensive and catastrophic |
| some simple commodity at the whims of our | | | | illness. |
| market economy. Health care should become a | | | | |
| basic human right. So, let's stop and think | | | | We can't seem to budge certain hospitals that |
| more about that. | | | | have turned medical care into assembly lines |
| | | | for beds, and patient charts, rather than a |
| Face Triggers: | | | | haven for love, compassion, and healing. |
| | | | |
| We need to face our red flags, and see the | | | | Many of us are powerless to change the |
| private health insurance industry for what it | | | | medical profession and pharmaceutical |
| really is: a business that seeks to make a | | | | industry, which say the market economy must |
| profit from healthy people who don't need it | | | | determine the price for all health care |
| very often. | | | | costs. |
| | | | |
| These corporations just keep striving to | | | | At times, we can become hopeless or apathetic |
| reduce coverage for "pre-conditions", and | | | | about professional politicians who are |
| they lobby against legislation to extend | | | | dependent on political contributions from the |
| national coverage to the sick, poor, and | | | | health care industry to get the money they |
| elderly. | | | | need to stay in office. |
| | | | |
| Some hospitals are red flags, because they | | | | I will complete our discussion of healthcare |
| are corporations who profit from becoming | | | | reform in my next article: Challenging the |
| more specialized, bureaucratized, mechanized, | | | | Dark Secret About Healthcare. |
| and computerized. | | | | |