The United States "Health Care" System is actually built around being sick. It's easier to get an insurance company to pay for treatment if you're already sick, than to get proven preventive measures paid for. And that's IF you even have health insurance. Not to mention the fact that it often feels as if more of our health care creativity goes into curing sickness than preventing sickness. We can and must do better.
My guest on Say It By Heart the week of September 15th not only talks about moving from Sick Care to Health Care, she's doing something about it. She's Dr. Gloria Wilder, President and CEO of Core Health.
During our conversation, the passionate Dr. Gloria (as she's often called) talked about the universal keys to social justice. They are: health care, education, environmental justice, economic justice and a fair legal system. It makes sense for health care to come first on this list. I say that not because Dr. Gloria is a health care warrior, but because the old saw is true -- you have nothing if you don't have your health.
There's been a lot of talk about health care during the presidential race. There usually is, but significant solutions don't move from paper to program. Meanwhile the cost of quality care seems to keep going up while its availability keeps going down. I don't pretend to know what the solution is, but I do know there is one and that we can find it. My concern is that we won't commit to finding that solution in the near future.
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