I?ve felt the smugness growing.? We wouldn?t ever find ourselves stranded like the poor government-dependent wretches in New Orleans would we?? In a way didn?t they really create the problems that forced them onto the rooftop pleading for help from kindly strangers?? What could they possibly expect when they?d been warned again and again about the disaster that had finally struck?? Thank God I?m not like that!? I?d never depend on anyone else to ?rescue? me when I could take care of myself.
Hurricane Katrina is going to look like a springtime shower when the United States wakes up to the crisis that is about to erupt in our midst.? No, it is not terrorists or the rise of the Chinese military.? Simply, it is the result of the same kind of dependence that killed hundreds of decent people and nearly killed thousands. This time it is foolishness at every level of society.? It?s not just the welfare recipient and working poor.? It is every breathing soul who believes that the health care system, insurance industry and government will benevolently step in to save life and limb when the rising tide of preventable disease overwhelms our resources.? The levees of the Mississippi will look like they were overbuilt compared to the miserably inadequate preparation most people have taken to care for their own health.
Like a locomotive that?s lost its brakes the health care system is careening toward disaster.? This is no time to be unprepared for crisis.? We live in perilous times that may require us to perform at higher levels than we envision in our worst nightmares!? Even the looting and lawlessness that followed on the heels of the disaster remind me of why we are in the mess where we find ourselves.? There are invisible undercurrents that are ignored or marginalized when things bump along as usual.? But when disaster strikes the weaknesses of our ?health-care system? will be exposed.? There will be plenty of blame to go around for doctors, lawyers, insurance companies and bureaucrats.? But that won?t recover the hundreds of thousands of lives cut short or devastated by the false advertising of the system.? The system doesn?t care.? People care.? Doctors even care sometimes.? I can?t speak for the rest of the players.
Make no mistake, our country is being flanked by powerful forces all around and unless we take our health much more seriously we will pay a high price.? Even though the weather looks just lovely today, a flood of bad news could hit you tomorrow and your health could be the price.?? It?s time to narrow the odds and build our health ?levees? as high as we can against the flood of stress, toxins and chronic disease.? No, your insurance company cannot go take a walk for you.? Your doctor can?t refuse an extra donut and your lawyer can only argue over the estate after the fact.? You are going to have to get serious or pay the price!
