D-I-Y Health Care Reform

If we're going to have a universal health care system of any kind, let's make it one that actually deals with improving health, and not just fattens the tax coffers--subsidize fruits and veggies, subsidize nutritional counseling, and what the hell...free pedometers for everybody! Then we'll examine how badly this "universal coverage" is really needed, as well as the Big Pharma empire. In the meantime, here are some things you can do until that day arrives...or even if it never does:

1. Wash your hands frequently throughout the day, before/during/after food preparation, after coughing or sneezing, after using the bathroom, and after handling money, or handling gas pump handles (they're sited as the germiest place in existence--money's #2). Shopping cart handles rate #3.

2. Consume no more than 6 grams of sugar per serving per day in processed/prepared foods, and no more than 1/8 cup per day in self-added sugar (to ward off expensive diabetes and cancer).

3. Consume no more than 100 mg. of sodium per serving (to ward off expensive hypertension). Make sure your potassium intake is twice your sodium intake.

4. Consume no more than 6 grams of protein per day (2 servings of 3 oz. each) to ward off expensive high cholesterol and kidney-related diseases, including gout.

5. Use good fats only: high Omega-3’s like olive oil, coconut oil, high-oleic safflower oil (check labels here), high-oleic sunflower oil, etc. The safflower, sunflower, and olive oils are not good for hot use, but coconut oil is terrific for cooking and baking, and can withstand heat. The other oils are best used cold, as in salad dressings, etc.

6. Stop smoking and don’t expose yourself to cigarette/cigar/joint smoke. Second- and third-hand smoke is just as dangerous (and expensive to treat) as first-hand smoke. Have yourself detoxed for heavy metals—cadmium and other dangerous heavy metals exist in cigarettes. Curb drinking to a minimum to avoid liver damage, and exposure to diabetes potential—booze is fermented grains which turn to liquid sugar, affecting the pancreas.

7. Eat primarily fruits and vegetables—avoid fast foods and processed foods (anything in a can, jar, box, or bag). If you MUST use processed foods, use some with low sodium (<100 mg./serving) or sugar (<6 grams/serving). This increases your fiber and eliminates excess fats, sugars, and hormones from your blood, and helps ward off cancer.

8. Visit a dietitian for a specific eating plan to help you lose weight and reverse chronic diseases you may now have, and visit a personal trainer for an exercise plan that fits your goals and abilities.

9. Have annual physicals, CBC blood tests, a urinalysis, plus all other appropriate annual tests (mammograms, PSA, etc.) to establish a baseline from which to gather knowledge for health improvement—blood and urine tell much of the story. If you have these results, take them to the dietitian, because he or she will need them to help make your corrective eating plan.

10. Stay current with immunizations—especially tetanus. A decent diet pretty much negates the need for things like flu shots, making these optional. I’ve never had a flu shot, and never gotten the flu.

11. Buy and use a faucet filter or filter pitcher for your drinking water to cut exposure to lead, mercury, flushed pharmaceuticals, and other contaminants, as well as chlorine intake.

12. Avoid convenience foods at all costs—learn to make your own at home. Fast foods in particular employ the same addiction-creating methods as cigarettes to keep you coming back for more, and are just as dangerous to your health as cigarettes. Drive-thru windows should be bricked up (in my opinion), and if you absolutely WANT this food, you should be made to get out of the car to get it!

After completing the above steps, then and only then do you need to worry about health insurance (unless you text while driving). Smoking cessation aids listed in #6, the professionals listed in #7, the tests listed in #8, the shots in #10, and the foods listed in #6 are the only things our government should be funding (subsidizing) in the way of national health care—the rest is easily achievable on your own, and should be achieved. Affordable coverage for trauma, surgeries, accidents, cancer, broken bones, and catastrophes is available through HSA plans (employer-provided or available online). The rest can be budgeted for in regular savings. If the qualifications for MSA expenses changed to include things like soap, smoking cessation aids, a water filter, or high Omega-3 oils, I’d recommend using that too as a budgeting aid—I consider these things as important as now-qualified expenses.

The diet you come away with from #7 will also improve our DENTAL health—lowering added sugar intake and increasing NATURAL sugar intake (through fruits and vegetables) will help lower incidence of cavities and gum disease, making dental visits more for cleaning than anything else. Brushing and flossing are the cheapest ways of extending tooth life.

The same can be said for the eyes—better diet will also preserve and possibly improve vision, slowing the need for glasses (or new glasses), and lowering the incidence for macular degeneration, cataracts, and other eye diseases.

Notice I didn't mention exercise--studies have shown that exercise just makes you hungry, and then you eat, and the you exercise to work off what you just ate...it's a never-ending cycle. Just walk more and you'll be all right.

Tort reform, drug patent reform, cost consolidation, back-door rationing, and government regulation may seem like good ideas to solve our so-called health care crisis, but don’t address what we can do for ourselves to eliminate the need for health care insurance in the first place—taking better care of ourselves to begin with. Think of it as “front-door rationing,” leaving those who don’t take better care of themselves to be victims of government onslaught with Medicare, Medicaid, and other intrusive social programs. Every government “giveaway” has strings attached, and nothing’s free—in order to receive this “benefit,” you must be willing and/or able to trash your own health, and then be subject to haphazard and expensive care to repair it.

So much of the above list can be accomplished without insurance—maybe not the visits to a dietitian or gym instructor, keeping up with immunizations, or the CBC and urinalysis, but many of them CAN be accomplished without insurance or some sort of subsidy. Do you really need Uncle Sam to pay for soap, put fruits and veggies in your shopping cart, or read labels for you?