As I watch the health care bill debate debacle tumble down the rat-hole of Congress, I have to shake my head at how absurd this has all become. The final version – in almost any iteration now – will surely bankrupt us in time. If you thought the bank bailout was excessive, wait until you see this final tab. And the bill will likely wind up such a twisted compromise that few of the major stakeholders (Reps, Dems, Docs, Insurers and patients) will be pleased. In fact, I’m guessing very few people will be truly positively impacted by it (except, ironically, those who have no coverage and could care less about taking care of themselves). Many of the rest of us will be hugely affected by it for years to come. Taxes and premiums will rise for the healthy among us who can pay (and even for many of those who can’t). The saddest part of all is that in a free-market economy, a bill like this ought to be entirely unnecessary, but for the fact that it is built upon that huge house of cards that consists of the faulty assumptions we as a nation seem to have made about personal responsibility and accountability. Having said all that, this post is not about ragging on ObamaCare. There are others far more qualified than I to do so. This is about the message that the universe is offering up to all of us as a result of this fiasco. That message is clear and concise: "When it comes to health, you’re on your own."
As one of my readers at Mark’s Daily Apple put it the other day, the problem isn’t lack of health insurance, it’s lack of health. If our collective diseases of civilization continue to mount as they appear to be doing, if the majority of us are headed toward near-certain serious degenerative disease as we are led to believe, then absolutely no insurance program or government aid will be able to pay for it. Read more
Mark Sisson is a former world-class triathlete who decided to improve his health by substituting sprinting and strength training for long distance endurance training. In this article, he discusses a low-tech solution to the health care crisis.
