Are We Really Ready For Change?

A great article written on the Health Care Blog by Dr.Lawrence Rosen talks about if Americans are really ready for change. He talks about how the first presidential election held so much hope for Americans, and how record voting numbers were hit in hope for change. One of the things that Americans were hopeful for was change in the health care plan that we had four years ago. Now that we have a new health care system in place in Obamacare, are we really prepared for the future that it holds? Dr. Lawrence Rosen brings up some very interesting facts about American citizens and the changes we have experienced in our health over a few decades. Obesity had increased over 130 percent in a matter of 20 years, Diabetes has more than doubled since 1996, Asthma grew from 2001 to 2009 by 4.3 million, and the prevalence of autism grew by an astonishing 289.5 percent. Why is this important? It is because of the insane amount of money that is being thrown out in health care for these health care problems and more. For example obesity medical cost amounted to more than $147 billion dollars in 2008, Diabetes estimated cost in 2007 was $174 billion, Asthma in 2007 cost Americans $56 billion dollars, and Autism and ADHD is estimated to be at $137 billion dollars per year. Most people have no idea the amount of money that is being spent in health care. If you asked someone today they would probably figure it is a lot, but seeing these numbers will certainly make your stomach turn.


So are we really ready for the new health plan President Obama has in place for us?  Dr. Lawrence points out that the big players in the health industry would rather have Americans sick. Why? Dr. Lawrence says that it’s the money. Of course big hospital chains, insurance and pharmaceutical companies, and medical associations want this, because that is the source of where there money comes from. They thrive off of the sick, and instead of offering a solution for prevention, they offer a pill.

 Change is happening, and that’s great. However what America needs now is not just the medical attention we deserve, but the preventative care. President Obama and his office have worked extremely hard at providing Americans with a change in the health care system that will benefit us for years to come, but what we need to ask for is not just the health care when we are sick, but the methods that prevent us from ever having to worry about getting sick. We need a change in our personal health, that way not only we can prevent obesity, and diabetes, but our children too. We can’t always rely on the government for everything we do, but educating the population instead of just offering us pills until the next refill will make us the healthy nation we need to be.