Sigh

I've been trying to blog but I've been too lazy. But this health care reform thing is really bothering me. I think good intentions have bad consequences. One thing I've noticed since I've worked in a hospital is patients need to take responsibility for their health. People get fat and do nothing and expect hospitals to fix them. I work in the military system so it's basically universal health care and patients taking no responsibility for their health is a common theme. The hospital has no leverage to force them to do anything and have to spend tax money for their endless laziness. Why should I pay for people who can't control themselves and become severely obese? I understand if you are newly diabetic and got hospitalized. But then it should be your responsibility to learn about the disease and learn to keep yourself out of the hospital. I'm sure insurance companies will find a way to make everything more efficient. But I feel like it's going to be a sink or swim kind of thing and really I see the whole thing start with lots of sinking. I feel the field is going to be like the military system where you have to wait three months for an appointment. I can go on and on about the bad things about the military system. And I can say some good things about it too but honestly the bad overshadows the good.
I think our money should be going into preventive medicine. If we spent a trillion dollars to prevent these diseases, I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing drastically less sick people. I know it's so much more efficient to prevent diseases. I know it's impossible to prevent all diseases. But it's so obvious how naive people are to these disease when you talk to patients. Spend more money on education please.
One final problem I forgot to mention earlier is, less appealing towns need healthcare too. Living in El Paso, I know how short they are in providers. And it's a pretty consistent problem in smaller cities. Sure, cities like LA and NY and other big cities will do fine finding providers. I hope they address this issue since it's already hard enough to find doctors to come here. How are they going to find doctors when they aren't willing to pay as much?