President Obama has been increasingly ramping up his campaigning efforts for his ObamaCare healthcare plan. The Obama administration expects to fully realize their dream of ‘affordable healthcare’ by 2014. However, there is not much in this gargantuan bill about caring for our health. Several key provisions of ObamaCare have been pushed backed. Delayed provisions, such as the employer mandate and the caps on out-of-pocket healthcare expenses, have more to do with economic implications than they do with actual health care. This weekend, Obama used his weekly radio/YouTube address to bolster support for ObamaCare while demeaning those in congress working against his efforts. It has been continually obvious from President Obama’s message that ObamaCare has nothing to do with real health care. This weekend’s address was no exception.
ObamaCare Affects Economy And Health
Obama opened his weekly address stating, “Over the past few weeks, I’ve been visiting with Americans across the country to talk about what we need to do to secure better bargains for the middle class.” It is no surprise that the next sentence did not include increasing availability of healthy food co-ops! Certainly securing better bargains for America’s middle class would include providing better access to healthy, organic, locally grown foods, right? Nope. But, then again, the word “health” does not currently appear in the actual title for the ObamaCare law.
From there, he moved on to talking about rebuilding the economy. “An economy built firmly on the cornerstones of middle class life: good jobs, a good education, a home of your own, a secure retirement, and quality affordable healthcare that is there when you need it.” Nobody actually knows what the cost will be to fully implement ObamaCare but we do know that it will not be affordable. Estimates hover around $2 trillion over the first ten years! It is absolutely ridiculous to call the ObamaCare law the “Affordable Care Act”!
The Obama administration has regularly disregarded this fact. Regarding the more popular elements of ObamaCare, he said: “And it’s okay if you’re not a fan of the affordable care act. You can take advantage of these things anyway.” These things include services such as free mammograms and other so-called ‘wellness services’, eliminating pre-existing condition clauses, and keeping ‘children’ on parents insurance plans until age 26. While these ideas are not all bad, they have little to do with real health. Further, they are some of the very elements that make the Affordable Care Act so Unaffordable. I think what was implied in the above quote is that ‘it is okay if you don’t like ObamaCare, we don’t mind, you will pay for it anyway!’ There is obviously a lot of disagreement over the affordability of this law.
Healthcare Reform Should Be About Health Not Politics
Our healthcare crisis is not about politics. It is about educating people to make better choices for their own health. Yet, ObamaCare does not address this in any significant way. The president stated that there are many on both sides working to support the Affordable Care Act “but there’s also a group of Republicans in congress working hard to confuse people and making empty promises that they’ll either shut down the healthcare law or, if they don’t get their way, they’ll shut down the government.” Some republicans, realizing the real economic impact of ObamaCare, have been pushing to delay implementation of the individual mandate. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) stated: “You and your family deserve the same relief the president gave to big businesses by delaying the employer mandate, it’s only fair.” This further demonstrates that the opposition to ObamaCare is more about the money; the impact on our economy, not about the impact on our health.
The answer to providing affordable healthcare to Americans does not lie within implementation of ridiculously expensive new laws. There is not enough money in the universe that we can throw at our healthcare crisis to make it go away! It is not a money problem. We already have the most expensive healthcare system in the world. With all this money we already spend on healthcare, we still have one of the worst health care systems, ranking 37th among other industrialized nations.
And, while health insurance policies need reform, our healthcare problem is not about insurance either. ‘Health’ insurance is a misnomer. We are not insuring our health, we are insuring our sickness. ObamaCare does nothing to change this either. Your so-called ‘health’ insurance does absolutely nothing for you while you are healthy. It only pays to treat your sickness. Modern medical approaches to health care, the only approaches paid for by insurance companies, do not even have the capability to address our health. They are specifically designed to merely treat symptoms of sickness and disease. This only reinforces your sickness, never providing better health.
Obama closed his address with the following statement. “Your health insurance isn’t something to play politics with, our economy isn’t something to play politics with, this is not a game, it’s about the economic security of millions of families… So, I’m gonna keep doing everything in my power to make sure that this law works as it’s supposed to. Because in the United States of America, health insurance isn’t a privilege, it’s your right and we’re gonna keep it that way.” The political implications of this statement will be debated all week long in other forums. However, my concern about ObamaCare is that by expanding our current healthcare and health insurance system, we will continue to see costs skyrocket. There is a way to secure better health for Americans. There is a way to make healthcare affordable. However, it takes radically different actions than those being promoted by the Obama administration. It takes radically different behaviours on the part of all Americans. ObamaCare is clearly not the answer to our healthcare crisis.
Real Health Care Reform Is About Wellness
I think that Obama would agree that wellness principles like regular exercise, healthy eating and a positive mindset, are not cornerstones of the American middle class life. However, working to implement these principles is the only answer to our healthcare crisis. You see, heath is a lot like light. The more light you have, the less darkness exists. The more health you have, the less disease exists. The more health you have the less need you have for our expensive disease care system. Compared to expensive, modern medical treatments for disease, maintaining health is cheap! There is a way to be well but it will never be found in a pill, through a surgery, or in ObamaCare. It is entirely possible to drastically reduce health care costs compared to today’s astronomical spending. However, it takes a completely different way of living.
Over the past ten years, I have been greatly encouraged to see the shift in consciousness towards more self responsibility for our health. More and more Americans are learning that doing simple things like eliminating toxins from our lifestyle, changing the foods we eat, and increasing our physical exercise have a dramatically positive impact of our health. More people are learning the importance of caring for their own health rather than relying on their doctor or the government. This is real healthcare! This is the shift that needs to continue if we are to see real change in our healthcare crisis.
If you are hoping to achieve better health and wellness through better government and more money, then you are in for major disappointment. Real health and wellness has only been achieved by taking better care of your own health. Begin implementing a lifestyle of optimal wellness today. For more information and help on achieving this lifestyle, visit and subscribe to Wellness Achiever today.
WellnessAchiever.net is a resource for those seeking to live a lifestyle of optimal wellness from the inside out!
References:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/weekly-address
http://www.businessinsider.com/best-healthcare-systems-in-the-world-2012-6?op=1
Additionally, I am a husband and father of a Deaf son. I am passionate about the Word of God, building strong families, Chiropractic Health Care, Optimal Nutrition and Exercise, Deaf Culture and American Sign Language.
