Health Care Reform Doesn’t Change Diabesity

© Jacquelyn Johnston, M.Ed. Diabesity Coach

There has been so much in the media about health care reform in the U.S. Here in Canada we’re undergoing some big changes too, but there is a fundamental difference in that we can go see a doctor anytime we choose without having to worry about the cost.

Somebody south of the border please explain to me why there’s so much opposition to health care for all. Won’t that make an immediate mark on the economy?

Take this for example: when a student has an accident in school the ambulance can be there in 3 minutes. The kid gets to hospital, at least one parent gets there as fast as possible, having been contacted by the school. By the time the parent arrives the care has already begun. Is that not a good thing? Sometimes the parent is out of town , but the kid is properly cared for anyway–immediately.

And what would you do if the kid fell on a ski trip? Wait till the parents arrived to splint him?

OK. We’re talking about acute care—something that requires immediate and maybe invasive attention, like an operation or oxygen, or care for a kid who’s had an anaphylactic reaction, like if she’s had some peanut butter and she had a severe allergic reaction. That’s what hospitals were originally meant for.

We have somehow come to believe that the hospital is the place for health care. The hospital is really meant for acute care. Health care is, in the last analysis, the responsibility of every person who has reached the age of reason. That includes kids duly guided by parents.

Health care includes everything you do to your body each living moment. It’s not what you get in your 10 minutes in a doctor’s office. Derek smokes, then goes to his doctor for a smoker’s cough. See anything wrong with that picture?

Or take my friend Clara. She likes platter-sized waffles made with white flour and smothered in fresh cream and strawberries, DRIZZLED WITH MAPLE SYRUP, I kid you not. I saw her eating that for lunch one day while I chomped on roast chicken with potatoes and a light salad. I could already hear her pancreas screaming. That was at a conference. She was already obese at the time, and she told me laughingly that her doc had said she only had pre-diabetes.

Well, at the afternoon session she slipped out and went back to her room for a 2-hour nap. When she came back she ate her way through the little bowl of mints on the table. The following year, she had full-blown diabesity. And she still has no time for a walk.

Now here’s a challenge: how about you write a story that’s the opposite of those of Derek and Clara. Wouldn’t that sound like health care? Undertaken by people who had reached the age of reason? Speaking of reasons, would you like a free report outlining Ten Proven Reasons Why You Must Lose Twenty Pounds Now? It’s on the right of this page. Go ahead. The let me know if you recognize anyone in the pictures.

Happy reading.

Jacquelyn

Jacquelyn Johnston M.Ed.
Professional Health Coach and Educator,
Solutions and Support for Optimal Health
Richmond, B.C. Canada