Healthcare reform

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

I don't think anyone is thrilled to be facing increased government

intervention into healthcare but we must keep in mind that there is not a

viable choice right now. We have had over 40 years to allow private

industry and individuals with " choice " and " rights " to make the right

choices and find a way to improve the health of this country and to improve

healthcare itself. In some ways we have with the tremendous drop in cancer

rates and heart disease. On the other hand private industry and individuals

have not found the solution. Our lives are being bankrupted by healthcare

costs and worst of all our health overall is not better. The government is

stepping in because those with " rights " and " choices " have failed!

With that said, I need also to remind us all to read the goals of healthcare

reform that the Senate, House and President Obama each have outlined. Those

goals present us with the framework to innovate a new system to address the

concerns of most. There has been discussion in the last few days about

individuals making the right choice but are we sure they always can? Within

the goals of all the plans is a move towards more preventative care

including suggestions for increased use of health " coaches " to help educate

and guide more people to make the right choice. It will be up to us as it

always is to make sure that this goes no farther than guidance but the

exciting thing is that there are numerous suggestions on how to tackle the

problem of individual health choices.

The same thing can be said about providing coverage to the current uninsured

and addressing some of the reasons that they are uninsured in the first

place. There are many proposals to meet the goal of eliminating the

uninsured. Have pre-existing conditions? Well a goal is to remove this

limitation completely.

We all need to be involved in the process right now. The time for talking

about the problems in health care is passing. The time for talking

solutions is passing. What we need is the will to draft an innovative

program that addresses the goals we have before us. It will not please all

of us but we must have the collective will to go forwards. Let's keep

talking solutions but let's all back that up with action in our daily lives

with the " rights " we have and in political action through continued

grassroots action. In the time it takes to post on this listserve, you

could write you members of Congress. Have you?

Tom Howell, P.T., M.P.T.

Howell Physical Therapy

Eagle, Idaho

thowell@...

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