What Really is Healthcare Reform?

Guest Post by Heart and Soul Health Coach Mike Fenton

When we look at healthcare reform it can sometimes be confusing as to what that really means because it can mean something different to us all. For some it can mean lower health care costs, and for some it means purchasing something they were not required to have before now.

Everyone is now being mandated that they purchase healthcare insurance as part of this so-called “healthcare reform”. But what does the requirement to purchase medical insurance have to do with healthcare reform? It should be more aptly named medical healthcare insurance reform.

Real healthcare reform begins in the home and it starts with eating nutritionally sound foods and participating in some form of physical exercise on a somewhat frequent basis. Will the new “healthcare reform” do anything to change the obesity epidemic, or have an impact on the 25.8 million children and adults in the United States (8.3% of the population) that have diabetes? Or the 7.0 million people that are currently undiagnosed diabetics? Or worse yet the 79 million people that are pre-diabetic?

Really healthcare reform could and would impact this group along with many more like it through the education of and the promotion of good health, nutritional guidance and exercise. It is not about who gets stuck with the tab for our last office visit. It is about eating better and incorporating some form of exercise into our life, even if it is just an evening stroll around the block.

How can we effect real healthcare reform? By making better choices when it comes to what we eat, sure it takes a little longer to make something that is not already pre-packaged, but when we look at the costs (our health) it should be a decision that leaves little room for thinking. When faced with problems such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol, we must make every attempt to get them under control through diet and exercise instead of using prescription medications where sometimes the side-effects are worse than the malady itself.

Recently, Ann Musico Holistic Health Coach and Dr. Brent Hunter reported on the effects stress has on our health. On separate occasions both made reference to the overwhelming evidence that most diseases are stress related.

We can live a longer healthier life by learning to release the stress that builds inside of us daily. Free yourself from the world of “I have to have it yesterday and focus on the here and now. By freeing ourselves of stress or at least trying to minimize it we can prevent many of the deadly diseases our world faces today.

This is when and where real healthcare reform begins.