If you've read my print document, you might already know the gist of what I think about our fractured healthcare system that we have in the United States.  I started my argument there and by the time my 1,000 word limit was up, I had no more room to offer a solution.  Here I will offer a few more glimpses, and at least one suggestive idea toward  a potentially better system.

Considering just how powerful the medical industry can be with its access to, let's say, a lot of money, when I went out for photos and camera footage, I actually became a bit paranoid and I ended up attempting to avoid the names of hospital systems in our area, so most of what I have included here is rather marginal.  

In any case, I've already previously mentioned in my print document the common troubles that can occur with trying to arrange appointments with medical specialists–whether it be from becoming an "established" patient, referral requirements, time itself, or health insurance coverage–here, I'd like to discuss how our system currently only addresses corrective measures of medical treatment and fails to include preventive strategies, which could very well be of the utmost importance, if we truly hope to have quality healthcare at all. 

Without meaning to be philosophical here, I've gradually embraced using a combination of alternative medicine, as a matter of prevention, along with conventional healthcare.  As a result, I'm quite the regular to health and wellness stores, which leads me to point out how currently, health insurance companies mostly flat-out refuse to cover preventive care.  So hold on a second, we have to wait until we're sick or dying to be covered for medical treatment?  Is that really good enough for YOU?

Healthcare is not as concrete, and black and white as the medical industry and insurance companies would like us to believe; there is more out there to treat ourselves besides what we're being told is all that money will allow, please don't be fooled!  We must educate ourselves, and then one another, and then, maybe then, we can truly begin to see that healthcare does not have to be as complex as it's made out to be, and we absolutely should not have to literally set foot on the threshold of death's door to finally get the attention we need…maybe.  

Now under the guise of the money-making scheme, even if I were to go along with it–which I don't–how about this idea to balance the "cost" of coverage between preventive and corrective care:  Instead of putting "all the eggs in one basket" and charging enormous amounts of money on corrective care, with no coverage for prevention, why not lower the costs of corrective care, and split the difference with an even distribution of coverage between prevention and corrective care?  In that way, the gains are the same and there's actually an increase in the spectrum of quality care possibilities! 

Do we really have to wait…until it is too late?   

True healthcare begins with ourselves; it begins with our diet, and our efforts toward self-care and well-being.  It does take discipline and it might even require a good bit of education, but it does not have to entail needless hemorrhaging of money, mindlessly siphoned out from the bank accounts of people who simply don't know any better.  Let's take care of ourselves, and then let's take care of others, shall we?

Because wouldn't you rather take this climb….than this one?