Commodity: as an article of trade or commerce, especially a product as distinguished from a service.
Just because I am a health care provider does not mean that I am any less immune to the difficulties in navigating the world of health insurance.
I have to shop quotes like everyone else. It is impossible to really tell the difference between plans and trying to find the best value for the type of care that I want for my family. And just like you my rates go up every year, my benefits usually go down…..the same stuff that frustrates many of you.
And while it has been easier for me to see the glass more half full than half empty (as of late (thanks to all my family and friends for that) I do not have a particularly rosy picture of healthcare in the future. The trends have been set…even with all the changes the government is promising. It is a basic scale of economy…there has to be cutbacks in some of the care we are going to get. It can be in the quantity or quality of service, but there will be changes.
While I was at the Careerfusion meeting in Florida it kept coming to me what the real answer for the best health insurance is in this country. It will save you and me tons of money in the long run. It is you, it is me. It is called personal responsibility.
Personal responsibility can mean different things to different people. I am guessing that for one obese celebrity chef, her idea of personal responsibility was for her to make a financial gain endorsing a diabetes drug as opposed to trying to change her lifestyle and educating the public after being diagnoses with the disease. I just don’t think that there will be many opportunities for any of us to monetize anything like that in our lives.
For me, personal responsibility means actually trying to do the best I can for myself and trying to limit how much I must depend on the health care system to fix me if and when I ever break down. (WHY DO WE CALL IT HEALTH CARE..ISN’T IT ACTUALLY SICK CARE)
I know it is hard, trust me I am not genius or even close to being a pioneer when it comes to trying to take care of myself. For many years I knew that I should change my eating habits, but it wasn’t until I saw Sugar: The Bitter Truth on YouTube did I actually get inspired to change my diet.
There are so many things that get in the ways of us taking personal responsibility for our health. Perhaps the greatest reason might be ignorance. But certainly after ignorance it would be an actually desire to make a change. Trust me, as a dentist I can attest to how hard it is to get people to make changes that would benefit them….I mean, why can’t everyone just brush and floss their teeth and eliminate gum disease and cavities.
To steal from a famous organization….easy does it. What I have found that has worked for me is not trying to promise myself the moon when I want to make changes. I try to take baby steps and add a little to each step when the time is appropriate. I just can’t handle trying to make 10 changes all at once. Last year I changed my workout schedule and stopped drinking diet soda once and for all. This year my first two commitments to change were to stretch better and eat way more vegetables than I had in the past.
So why do I write that I don’t want to be a commodity any more. Simple, I don’t know if the public sees health care as a product or a service any more. Unfortunately I see the trend towards viewing healthcare as a commodity (example…. I can’t go to the dentist because I don’t have dental insurance) Even though I know health insurance is a necessary evil in our life I want to try and minimize how much I have to depend on the system to keep me going. Because when I do depend on it I have become nothing more than a commodity in the eyes of the healthcare system.