Prevention, maintenance needed for the body

We change our oil in our vehicle every 3,000 miles. We rotate our tires at regular intervals to get the best use of our tires. We wash and wax the outside of our vehicles to protect the finish of our vehicle. We follow manufacturer guidelines to ensure that our vehicles run for as long as possible and as safely as possible. All of this without insurance covering the basics of auto maintenance.

Why should we expect for insurance to cover the basic maintenance of our most precious vehicle, our bodies?
I do not hear much in the national debate about the need for prevention and “maintenance” as a priority. The rewards have always been in place for a person to maintain their bodies well without a government handout for doing so. However, if there is going to be a “new deal” for American health care, then lets get to an important aspect of the debate. Our individual choices determine much of what we are exposed to in facing health care costs. Much like the choices to forget to change the oil in a car. We cannot make the wrong choices for long before the effects begin to cost us in big ways.

It seems that what we are facing in health care is a lot like a long overdue exercise /diet plan. There are no short cuts. There are no easy one size fits all solutions. To be sure there are conditions and circumstances that require the coverage of insurance.

However, if we are going to engineer social policy with regard to health care then we need to value incentives for good behavior higher than entitlements for bad behavior. The social cost differential between the two sides of the equation are clear.

The benefit of healthy productive citizens means that we are able to shape a better USA.

There is also an opportunity/need to educate our citizens about good choices. I know that we offer some education through our school systems. However, it is more than a class in a curriculum. It is a life style, a fundamental necessity, and a decision to make us better now and for decades to come.

The study of human performance is moving forward at greater speeds than ever. Therefore, we need to be able to reach our students with the newest and latest in health care education early in their learning process and through out their education.

The care of our bodies is essential to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Finally, the issue of health care reform has connections to other areas of our society. We have significant groups of our population sitting in cars for two to four hours per day commuting to work with obvious health consequences.

Are the dollars that we are considering for health care better spent relieving the commuting time with mass transit or rail improvements?

Are the dollars better invested in education aimed at better behavior?

Fundamentally, our choices today will affect our debt as a country financially. However, it will more importantly affect our debt to the health of the next generations.

Setting the best goal is the first step in getting to the best result.