To the Editor:
This idea might feel uncomfortable but it should be discussed.
Syracuse.com has published an editorial and letters recently to our healthcare cost predicament (”NY’s public hospitals should stop suing low-income patients over medical debts (Editorial Board Opinion),” Dec. 17, 2023; ”There’s a solution to medical debt: the NY Health Act (Your Letters), Dec. 18, 2023).
Each demands that a different entity assume responsibilities: the healthcare providers; insurance companies; politicians; or the courts. None encouraged us, as the patients, to pull up a chair and take a seat at the table.
For some reason the idea that we have a great degree of agency over our own health outcomes is shunned as implausible, when in reality we sit in the driver’s seat. A large chunk of our healthcare costs come from drugs, treatment and appointments spawned by chronic illness management like high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol. Any of which, most metabolically healthy individuals can manage with minimal medical intervention.
Acute illnesses, trauma and various diseases will require doctor visits, health insurance and expensive care. That’s an absolute fact and I’m not arguing that personal lifestyle choices will solve it all or that lifestyle interventions are easy for everyone under all circumstances. But, while we’re on the topic, it seems like a reasonable position to at least encourage all of us to participate in achieving our best possible health outcomes.
No matter who pays the bills, medical expenses are inevitable and particularly tragic when they become unaffordable. Tackling healthcare is a complex issue that will continue to rack up costs until our bubble bursts or the problem is solved. Hopefully the latter. In the meantime, $4.2 trillion spent annually towards the healthcare industry does seem a smidge high.
Will learning and acting on nutrition, health and exercise information be a perfect solution? No. But, neither is waiting for, or expecting healthcare providers, insurance companies or politicians to come up with yet another brilliant solution of their own.
Will learning and acting on nutrition, health and exercise information make for easy policy implementations? No. But it at least gives the stakeholders a different problem to address — how to educate and provide access to nourishing foods and an active community.
With a New Year approaching, let’s do the best that we can to try it. Let’s pay particular attention to the foods that we eat and the amount that we move around each day — and aim to improve. Better nutrition and exercise aren’t free either, but the costs of purchasing healthier food and adhering to a fitness plan pale in comparison to becoming a lifelong pharma customer.
The worst case scenario is that next year we’re back discussing the same health care cost problems, but our mental, emotional and physical health has changed for the better.
J. Sam Rodgers
Syracuse
