Health Care Reform Begins Today!  We’re Saved!  Or…

The new health care reform bill kicks in today, and I can already feel the healing power of government intervention clearing out my sinuses and making my eyes tear up a bit.  Or maybe that was the hot sauce I put on my chicken today.

Either way, we’re saved!  We’re saved!  Or, probably not.

You see, the health care bill only KIND OF starts today.  We’re easing into health care reform, like hot bath water.  The full measure of reform will take place over the course of the next four years, unless, of course, it gets derailed by our always well-meaning political leaders.

Honestly, I have no idea what to think of this.  Since I work in health care, I get asked all of the time, “What do you think of health care reform?”  Like 99% of other health care providers, my response is to shrug, look down at the ground and say, “mmmmmm I dunno”.

On one hand, there’s a lot of really cool things in the package, like insurance companies can’t suddenly decide you’re ineligible for the benefits you’ve been paying for because you got sick, and they realized you forgot to dot the “i” in your street address on your application.  So nobody gets dropped due to technical errors.

Kids can’t be denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions… I like that one.  And there’s a lot of other little tidbits that basically add up to insurance companies can’t be complete evil a-holes any longer… only partially evil a-holes.  But it’s a step.

On the other hand, this bill is so ridiculously convoluted that there is no way to tell what the overall net effect is going to be… for the patients, for the providers, for the institutions like hospitals.  It’s a big crap shoot.  It could financially destroy health care providers, leading to far fewer doctors.  It could simply funnel more money than ever into the coffers of insurance companies (and decrease the quality of coverage) due to the ridiculous “everyone must buy coverage or get fined” provision.

I guess all that we can do is wait and see.  However, my advice is, don’t wait for rescue.  Take better care of yourself, and stay out of the system.  Even if somebody else does pay for it, treatment is often as bad as the disease!

So avoid the issue altogether by switching over to a whole foods diet, getting some exercise, doing your best to avoid stress, get sufficient rest, and all those good healthy things I keep talking about on this site.  Otherwise, you may end up taking some medication for which “twitching rectum” is an “acceptable side effect”.  Hey, I don’t care if health care reform means I can get those meds for free.  You can keep ’em.

Stay Healthy and stay out of the sick care system!

New York Times Article on Health Care Reform