Do we really have a healthcare crisis in America? Everyone from the poorest citizens to multi-national companies seem to agree that we do, and that the only question is who should pay for it. The real question, however, is not how to pay down the healthcare crisis, but why Americans are so fixated on being sick.
We don't have a healthcare problem in America.
When you reach the point where both the haves (read: multinational corporations) and the have-nots (read: everyone else) are both complaining that healthcare will "lead them to bankruptcy," the issue ceases to be a problem and becomes a paradox.
In the ultimate zero-sum game that is our free market economic system, when all sides of the equation are having the same "problem", it usually means the real issue is being missed or ignored.
On the surface it is certainly seems like an economic issue: healthcare costs a lot of money, who is going to pay for it? Is healthcare too expensive? If so, is it because of lawsuits? Shady controls on imported drugs?
Money, however, is neither the problem nor solution here. It can't be. Healthcare is such a large and all-encompassing cost center that, by the nature of a free market economy, no matter who writes the check, we're all going to pay for it anyway.
Stripping economics out of the debate, we're left with the less-discussed question: why are we so sick? I believe this does get us a little closer to the crux of the issue, but it's a position that has its logical flaws as well. Decade by decade we find that pollution declines, dangerous activities like smoking decrease, and life expectancy continues to rise. Yet our "need" for healthcare also rises. Something just doesn't compute.
Thus, I would take the "why" out of the above question and ask: are we really this sick?
We can't possibly be. But we certainly think we are. It is this dichotomy that finally beings to shed light on the real healthcare problem in America. The reasons (unfortunately for those who like simple black-and-white, who-to-blame answers) are complex, ingrained in everything from our cultural attitudes towards illness to the way we approach the marketing of healthcare.
Since each and every one of us were children, our culture has been more and more accepting of illness and the need for care. While this attention we give our health certainly has important benefits (e.g. discovering diseases at an early stage), our obsession over personal care has morphed into the positive reinforcement of being sick in general. Think about it simply: children are taught that with illness comes the unquestioned benefit of not having to go to school for a few days. "Calling in sick" is the predominant way American workers remove themselves from the stresses of the job for awhile.
At the end of the day we've all learned that illness is a safe place for us to be. It may start as completely dishonest, or a slight over-exaggeration, but any psychologist will tell you that if you want to be sick, its not that hard to trick the mind and body into really being sick.
At one time in our history being sick was, quite frankly, a bad thing. Without the benefits of technology we have today, being sick meant crops were not harvested, industrial output was slowed, and basic needs- food, water, clothing and shelter- were in danger of not being met. Now, I am not about to extol the qualities of 19th Century living- I like my cozy life as much as anyone- but I do find it dubious that as Americans gain more and more free time, they tend to fill it with being sick.
