by Nick Jacobs

Will the next ten years provide the answers required to make our health system functional into the future? If we give serious attention to the tangible challenges presently at play, it becomes very apparent that our structure will not work without a unified, bipartisan approach to the issues in consideration. For example, the flooding of our emergency rooms with marginated patients, lack of health insurance coverage for 47,000,000 American citizens; the looming failure of Medicare; the outrageous demands of an incident by incident system aimed at intervention at a time of crises rather than a lifetime of well articulated preventative health related personal decisions.

It is well documented that, if we can embrace even a limited exercise regime, discontinue the consumption of saturated and Trans fats, and stop smoking, our country will experience a surge in the length of life.

If we, as a country, could conclude that our priorities should be directed more completely toward our own citizens’ well-being, we could end up far ahead of the game. The United States has just surpassed all other industrialized nations in the separation between rich and poor. We have now reached a ratio of rich to poor that is 500 times more pronounced than in Japan.

When asking these hard questions, it is important to realize that this is not liberal vs. conservative; it is not blue vs. red; or D vs R; it is about human beings caring about other human beings. It is about the irrefutable rights of all Americans. It is about embracing our fellow man and providing a net for those of us who are not as fortunate as others. It is about getting our collective act together as a country to put together a health policy for our country. Finally, it is about prioritizing our values in a mature, caring way.

Sorry if this ended up being a rant. Maybe that’s why I have been in nonprofit management my entire life?