LETTER: We must take responsibility for health care

Drug companies, doctors, supplement manufacturers, insurance companies, and advertising executives all seem determined to convince me that I am too fat, too thin, too old, too bored, too depressed, too lazy or too hyper to possibly be happy and healthy. Doctors I know make salaries of close to $750,000 per year, and young drug company sales reps can earn about $100,000 per year. My insurance company salesman drips diamond pinky rings, drives a Lexus, and loves to talk about his golf game and his house on Lake Lanier. In short, there is a lot of money being made on my behalf.

Unfortunately, sometimes my coverage seems to cover an annual mammogram; other times that is an indulgence that the insurance company underwriters consider suspicious. If my doctor recommends an annual exam, perhaps there is something wrong with me? Is there a pre-existing condition that they shouldn’t have to take responsibility for? And could this be an unfair risk to the insurance company’s bottom line? In short, my health is at the mercy of a very strange form of free enterprise, one that has created a hodge-podge of medical supports and treatments that often seem to discourage, rather than support, living a responsibly healthy life. Should we allow “bottom lines” “free enterprise” and market forces to be the deciding factors in our health coverage? Is that the freedom of choice people who are fighting health care reform are working so hard to save for us?

Congress has been wrangling with an extremely complex health care debate, and I commend our president, his advisors and congressmen and women on both sides of the aisle for having the guts to try to come to terms with what has become an insupportable situation. At the same time, I can’t help but wonder if Americans’ access to cheap, processed food, unnecessary products, and easy access to inexpensive energy isn’t catching up with us. Where does our own responsibility lie if we choose to eat Twinkies, drink soft drinks, and spend our lives in the car? How can we expect any health care system, public or private, to care for us if we’re not willing to take responsibility for our lives by eating healthy foods, getting exercise, and avoiding the things that we know make us sick? Should we ignore all that and expect the government to care for us as we age?

As I see it, this effort by President Obama and the Congress is not about destroying choice, limiting care, or taking away “freedom.” And it certainly isn’t about euthanizing elderly people. The government is and has been involved in our care for decades and for the most part, it has done a good job. (Medicare never ceases to amaze me. And Medicaid assists the most needy, while various government-sponsored insurance helps cover children, etc.) The current debate is about finding ways to address increasingly complex issues of our society’s ills. We need to continue to think critically, listen respectfully and be generous in our efforts to understand the needs of the uninsured members of our society. But until we Americans are willing to take responsibility for our indulgences and our personal health, we will forever be paying outrageous prices for health care, no matter what system we’re using.

Sincerely,

Melissa Tufts

Comer