Dr. Jones’ Diagnosis: A Culture Crisis
I don’t usually focus my blog on my professional health care arena, but two points over the last 2 days have provoked this post. First, this morning I received a copy of this letter in my in box from one of my healthcare pals, and checked it out on Snopes. While it is a little old (on snopes it says it was written August 29 of last year), the point is still very valid and salient. The second point was a chat with one of my mentors yesterday, in which s/he began to rant about why business owners have to pay for their employees’ healthcare. We discussed Henry Ford and the rationale behind why he began to offer healthcare in the 30s or 40s (give or take a few years). His/Her point was valid – why should people have the right to eat, drink, smoke and not exercise, yet s/he gets to foot the bill? AND, s/he’s hiring the people in the first place and giving them a JOB and a steady INCOME so they can live better lives!
We are not facing a healthcare crisis in this country. But instead, we are facing a culture crisis. We have slipped into this entitlement mentality that someone owes us everything, including healthcare. Now, while I believe that preventative care might be a borderline right, I honestly don’t see how someone with gold teeth, new cell phones and tats shouldn’t be self sustainable and get their own healthcare, or god forbid, get a job where they could have or afford healthcare.
Furthermore, I don’t honestly think my employer should have any determination of some of the most intimate decisions of my life. We buy our own car insurance and home owner’s insurance. Why SHOULD our employers be forced to buy us health insurance? And really, when you think about it, if we want to keep our own civil liberties and rights to smoke, eat, and drink any way we choose, the employer SHOULD NOT be forced to pay for our naughty behavior.
Whoever Dr. Jones is and wherever he resides, he’s correct. It’s time for us as a nation to quit focusing on the masses, and instead, focus on fixing the fundamental cultural entitlement notion BEFORE spending gazillions on healthcare just to “cover everyone”. Maybe, if we all have to start paying our own healthcare insurance bills, we’d get up off our butts and get them onto the sidewalks and treadmills of this world and GET HEALTHIER!
I think a super smart state in the union would perhaps even take it a step further and not require employers to offer healthcare insurance, but instead focus on keeping health insurance costs lower and allowing all of us to pay for our own health care. THAT would spur some serious economic development – at least on the small business owner front. Who cares if you get a $5K tax credit only if you hire an employee if you still have to pay thousands just for their healthcare insurance, on top of their wages and all other benefits?
