don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

If you can start the day without caffeine or pep pills,

If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,

If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,

If you can eat the same food everyday and be grateful for it,

If you can understand when loved ones are too busy to give you time,

If you can overlook when people take things out on you when,

through no fault of yours, something goes wrong,

If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,

If you can face the world without lies and deceit,

If you can conquer tension without medical help,

If you can relax without liquor,

If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

If you can do all these things,

Then you are probably the family dog.

An anonymous post found on the Internet entitled "Inner Strength"

Surely you have read or heard by now that health insurance as it has existed for half a century is coming to an end. With monthly fee increases of 20 percent or more coming year after year, commentators are repeating in mantra-like fashion the following prediction: "In a few more years, the only two people in this country who will be able to have health insurance are Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. No one else will be able to afford it." Chances are good that you and/or your employer (if you have one) can't afford it now. If you can deal with this situation "without caffeine or pep pills, if you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains, if you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles" and so on, well, I know you're not the family dog. Please tell me how you can do all these things.

At present, 41 million Americans do not have health insurance. They are not all poor or unemployed; large numbers of workers with full-time jobs are without coverage. Last year alone, 1.4 million Americans lost their health insurance. Of these, 800,000 had incomes in excess of $75,000. The private system that has operated since the end of WWII is breaking apart -- and there is no national system in place or on the drawing boards to protect the American people.

The strongest parts of the economy in terms of job growth were in those sectors unlikely to provide employees with health insurance benefits, namely, small businesses and service industries. In addition to these low-wage, nonunion sectors, many new jobs were filled by immigrants and the very young, the very people most willing to take positions without the usual benefits (health insurance, for example.)

Policy makers and health care analysts seem agreed that the United States medical delivery system is a crisis situation. Experts at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation believe two options being discussed at the national level are most likely to emerge as a stop gap strategy to address this crisis: 1) tax breaks (credits) to encourage the purchase of health insurance; 2) expanded eligibility for Medicaid or other federal programs. Naturally, the former is a Republican-led plan; the latter a Democratic Party favorite. A spokesman for a consumer group called "Families USA" said Republicans and Democrats will probably agree on some kind of combination of tax credits and Medicaid expansion. Don't count on it! My sense is that the combination that matters most is the huge spending on the war on terrorism/Iraq and varied Evil Ones combined with the high costs of homeland and other security investments. These two factors make any substantial investments in needed domestic programs unlikely anytime soon, in my opinion.

The real question is this: "What should YOU do?" Here is my list of tips -- ignore these steps at your peril.

1. Do not take ill.
2. Learn medical self-care skills in the event you do. These skills will not help much if you suffer a heart attack or succumb to any number of dread diseases, but they can be very helpful for knowing what to do in the event of minor injuries, colds, flu and the like.
3. Practice a wellness lifestyle. Not any wellness lifestyle -- shape a top end version, one that is highly advanced in all 14 skill areas to the point of lifestyle artistry.
4. Move to Australia, Canada or another developed country -- they all have far better health care/medical systems than America.
5. Find a full-time job with one of the increasingly rare companies in America that still offers free or even affordable health care coverage as an employee benefit.
6. Marry someone who has such benefits and become an eligible dependent of this fortunate employee.
7. Die suddenly.

Not a pretty picture but then a wellness mindset is a reality-based way of viewing the world, not a hippy-dippy perspective based on self-delusion. Seek to understand and track the changing nature of the realities you must address and manage, do what you can to cope and prosper, and after that hope for the best and look on the bright side of life.

This solves nothing but keeps things from getting worse and helps you feel better. Cheers.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MENTAL DOMAIN under the skill area of factual knowledge. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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