geauxtohell
Choose your weapon.
A pretty good read.
Treating a Nation of Anxious Wimps
Its obvious to me that despite all the furor and rancor, what is being debated in Washington currently is not healthcare reform. Its only healthcare insurance reform. It addresses the undeniably important issues of who is going to pay and how, but completely misses the point of why.
Healthcare costs too much in our country because we deliver too much healthcare. We deliver too much because we demand too much. And we demand it for all the wrong reasons. Were turning into a nation of anxious wimps.
At a time when we have an unprecedented obsession with health Dr. Oz, The Doctors, Oprah and a host of daytime talk shows make the smallest issues seem like apocalyptic pandemics we have substandard national wellness. This is largely because the media focuses on the exotic and the sensational and ignores the mundane. Our society has warped our perception of true risk. We are taught to fear vaccinations, mold, shark attacks, airplanes and breast implants when we really should worry about smoking, drug abuse, obesity, cars and basic hygiene. If you go by pharmaceutical advertisement budgets, our most critical health needs are to have sex and fall asleep.
Somehow we have developed an expectation that our health should always be perfect, and if it isnt, there should be a pill to fix it. With every ache and sniffle we run to the doctor, or purchase useless quackery such as Airborne or homeopathic cures (to the tune of tens of billions of dollars). We demand unnecessary diagnostic testing, antibiotics for our viruses, narcotics for bruises and sprains. And due to time constraints on physicians, fear of lawsuits and the pressure to keep patients satisfied, we usually get them.
Treating a Nation of Anxious Wimps