Community

There is a great deal of talk about health care reform these days, most of it about the dollars and sense of the whole thing (pun intended). We debate the fiscal responsibility of a multi-billion dollar healthcare bailout, of sorts; we argue the potentials for abuse; we champion the necessity of cardiac catheters, dialysis, and other life-saving heroics and how everyone should have access to these "essentials." But never do you hear the ultimate truth of healthcare, which, incidentally, is a truth of society. Health is a community endeavor. As it happens, we live in an unhealthy society; our unhealthy society promotes unhealthy people.

Americans watch, on average, 34 hours of television per week. A third of the American population is obese, with another third overweight (even as skewed as the BMI system is, those numbers are terrifying). And how many people know more than 2 of their neighbors? From what I've seen, almost nobody. With all of that information, it is no wonder that the leading cause of disability in America is depression. We are spectators in a life that was meant for participation. We are unfulfilled, unsatisfied, and isolated. We are creatures that excelled at survival because of community only to exchange community for a lonely isolation. While this isolation allows us to avoid uncomfortable virtues like accountability and courage, it also allows us to sink into our own mediocrity. No one ever has to know.

The public arena discusses healthcare on a national level, but fails to recognize the community. We talk about costs on such a grand level that people lose touch with the visceral facts and forget that it actually costs real money and man hours to provide that care. A community, on the other hand, sees the figures and the people behind them. There is both an understanding of the cost, and an appreciation for the service. Furthermore, there is accountability. I, as a member of the community, find it much more aggravating if an acquaintance of mine doesn't take his medicine, or watch his weight, or stop smoking because I can understand on an intellectual, as well as emotional level how that will impact me and the rest of the community. It is our money and our resource. On the other hand, as things are, I simply brush off such behavior with the notion that the god-like government will handle it. After all, they have enough money, and they've taken care of it so far, so why not now? Is this fair? No. But I would argue that it is human nature.