rantin' time again
wooo! it's been awhile since i was coherent enough AND interested in ranting about something i heard. i suppose that's a good sign that i'm feeling pretty good... back from my cold.
ok so today i heard a little half-cliche on the radio and it got me really angry. sometimes i think people should think before they say (except me. ... i'd never say anything awesome if i had time to think twice).
so this was some sort of campaign message from someone-or-other and they said the words: "Everyone has the right to [good] health."
take a second and think about that....
WTF?????? who precisely dispenses a right like that? your government? your god? your parents? your elementary school bus driver? what does it even mean? what can that mean?
no government guarantees good health, nor religion (maybe scientology does), and no parents have ultimate control over the health of their child - if they did, logically, no child would ever die of illness. neither would a believer, nor a patriot, but those ideas are absurd.
i think they meant health care... that we have a right to health care ... big difference. health care doesn't equal health. health care can but may not lead to good health, lack of health care does not deny health.. the relationship between the two is not concrete or predictable. actually people who have good health frequently avoid health care because it's unnecessary to them.
health education is a right we all should have, and since health is part of our public education system we have access to it, but what we choose to do with it is where i tie this back to health care and rights. we don't actually have a right to have health care solve our problems. We have a right to seek out health care, but health care may not be able to help us so what are we entitled to then? - i am speaking now as a health care professional (and an opinionated bastard) - we have the choice to live as we like. we can choose to seek out health knowledge we have the responsibility to be informed about our health, but all of us have to work for good health, no one just opens a box or bottle and eats good health. we have to be responsible for our health and the choices that impact our health... and when our choices' consequence is something that health care can do nothing about you are entitled to feel about it however you choose, but i can't be held responsible for making your "right" a reality. and neither can anyone else.
so remember... your local health professional is there as a guide.. .they teach you how to live to improve your situation (the word doctor after all comes from the original docere - to teach).... it is ultimately your responsibility to make the most of your health and if that isn't your priority then that's fine. but no one can guarantee your health will be someone else's priority or responsibility.
so that's my rant tonight. now it's time for sleep.
ok so today i heard a little half-cliche on the radio and it got me really angry. sometimes i think people should think before they say (except me. ... i'd never say anything awesome if i had time to think twice).
so this was some sort of campaign message from someone-or-other and they said the words: "Everyone has the right to [good] health."
take a second and think about that....
WTF?????? who precisely dispenses a right like that? your government? your god? your parents? your elementary school bus driver? what does it even mean? what can that mean?
no government guarantees good health, nor religion (maybe scientology does), and no parents have ultimate control over the health of their child - if they did, logically, no child would ever die of illness. neither would a believer, nor a patriot, but those ideas are absurd.
i think they meant health care... that we have a right to health care ... big difference. health care doesn't equal health. health care can but may not lead to good health, lack of health care does not deny health.. the relationship between the two is not concrete or predictable. actually people who have good health frequently avoid health care because it's unnecessary to them.
health education is a right we all should have, and since health is part of our public education system we have access to it, but what we choose to do with it is where i tie this back to health care and rights. we don't actually have a right to have health care solve our problems. We have a right to seek out health care, but health care may not be able to help us so what are we entitled to then? - i am speaking now as a health care professional (and an opinionated bastard) - we have the choice to live as we like. we can choose to seek out health knowledge we have the responsibility to be informed about our health, but all of us have to work for good health, no one just opens a box or bottle and eats good health. we have to be responsible for our health and the choices that impact our health... and when our choices' consequence is something that health care can do nothing about you are entitled to feel about it however you choose, but i can't be held responsible for making your "right" a reality. and neither can anyone else.
so remember... your local health professional is there as a guide.. .they teach you how to live to improve your situation (the word doctor after all comes from the original docere - to teach).... it is ultimately your responsibility to make the most of your health and if that isn't your priority then that's fine. but no one can guarantee your health will be someone else's priority or responsibility.
so that's my rant tonight. now it's time for sleep.
5 Comments:
Everyone has the right to party.
What? They can't give me good health? Now I don't know who to vote for... and that makes me sad.
Good to see you ranting!
At the risk of being annoying... the way I would interpret that is more that everyone has the right to afford health care. I agree with you that 'everyone has a right to good health' is too broad, but it sounds like their point is, if you have an operable brain tumor, or whatever, you shouldn't have to die because health insurance was not affordable, or insufficient. If it's curable, it should be cured.
Which, I think, is reasonable in the end, even if the politicians who are talking about it will forget what they said 10 seconds after they're elected.
by no means is that annoying. i agree that people should be able to afford health care. keeping in mind here that health care is actually doctors or whoever treating our illnesses, not the assortment of insurance products that unlocks the doors between us and doctors. i really want to see medicine evolve into the Dynastic Chinese model, the doctor is supported by the village they serve on the condition that they keep everyone well and productive. let's have some proactive health efforts rather than this consumptive reactive nonsense we call medicine in the west. it's a completely backwards way to look at health and i'm not sure where it began but it absolutely needs to be abandoned in the street like an unwanted Popsicle wrapper...
It needs to be more like veterinary health care. We have to have competitive prices and give good service or we lose clients. We also have to stay on top of preventative medicine because THAT is our bread and butter. We do many more spays neuters and dental cleanings in a day than we do cruciate repairs and tumor removals. We actually make it a priority in a young pet appointment to talk about the problems commonly associated with that pet (i.e obesity in a Labrador which leads to ACL ruptures and ear problems in Cockers which leads to ear ablations.) The ultimate responsibility lies with the client, though. We can educate all we want but they have to choose to do the best thing for their pet, feed high quality food, exercise, etc. And we're there to help them when they make stupid choices and have to shell out the big bucks to fix it. They have to figure out how to come up with the money, though, as payment plans are a death wish for a vet hospital. I'm not sure how that would work with the country in general....needing a sudden $2000 surgery and such...I know I couldn't afford that right now. Hmmmm.....
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