Health care proxy wars become national sport of the year
EDMOND — Something we have heard and read repeatedly since discussion of health-care reform became an everyday event is that it must include the public’s participation, so that our elected representatives can accurately represent us. This would appear to be obvious and might, on the surface, seem to be happening, in all the town hall meetings, “tea parties” and such.
But it isn’t happening, at least as far as one can tell from the news media. Of course, they would be unlikely to show anything as boring as a rational/and sober discussion of health-care reform. Mob scenes and shouting matches are much more entertaining. Nevertheless, what we have instead seen is that health-care reform has become a proxy for all the things that conservative extremists, especially the love my country/hate my government, conspiracy theorist crowd loves to hate: liberal presidents, the toxic assets relief program, the economic stimulus program, Medicaid, illegal immigrants — basically anything and everything the government does except those programs that directly benefit them. It’s all a Big Government Takeover!
So, the town meetings and tea parties, some of them anyway, become ridiculous (signs saying “keep the government oil of Medicare”), nasty (President Obama caricatured as Hitler), and threatening (participants carrying weapons). Instead of a discussion of reform plans based on their own merits, we’re having just the latest chapter in the decades-long history of political polarization and ideologically based intolerance that we can’t seem to leave behind. In this theater of the absurd, facts and reason are irrelevant, and holders of differing viewpoints become bitter enemies, able to communicate only with insults and epithets. It’s not just discouraging, it’s embarrassing. But it’s a grand old American tradition.
The sausage factory in Washington, D.C., eventually will produce some type of plan despite all the screaming and hysteria. Since “the public” has chosen not to discuss the legislative component of reform, perhaps they could turn to another essential component of reform, i.e., individual health care. Unless we get serious about our personal responsibilities for health, any legislation that’s passed will be of limited value.
Individual health care reform would be relatively simple. That doesn’t mean it would be easy, but it’s mostly a matter of choices. So here’s my suggestion: Chill out! Let your brain prevail over your adrenaline for a while. Do something good for yourself and your family such as choosing to quit smoking, with professional help if necessary. If you are 30 percent or more above desirable weight and/or diabetic, choose to get serious about your diet. Yes, obesity is partly genetic but you cannot change that. The bottom line is, to lose weight you have to choose to eat fewer calories than you bum. Period. Get professional help if necessary. If you can’t control your drinking, quit playing games with your family and choose to get help from Alcoholics Anonymous. Doing any one of these things would save America tens of billions of dollars each year. The same probably could be said for texting and cell phone blabbing while driving.
These are all primarily personal responsibilities, not politicians’ responsibilities. There are many more like them. We, the people, have to get serious about them. We’ve seldom done that before. So let’s quit shouting at everybody else, take our share of the responsibility for health in America, and maybe we’ll get this problem under some control. It’s our choice.
To physicians, I say, hone and use your clinical skills first and foremost in your practice, before turning to technological aids, and take the time to use your powers of persuasion in helping patients through their problems.
DENNIS WEIGAND is an Edmond resident.
