Our Health Care System is Broken and You’re the Solution

Health care is a big topic in this country. It was one of the main areas of debate during the recent presidential election, but the politicians can’t seem to agree on much. I don’t think we’ll ever have a perfect system, but I do know that what we’ve been doing for the last 25 years hasn’t worked. Chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes have dramatically increased, and this has increased our spending. In case you didn’t know, we spend over 3 trillion dollars on health care per year. For such a large number, you would assume we would have one of the best health care systems in the world. However, the World Health Organization ranked the United States as number 37. That made us just a little better than Slovenia, but not quite as good as Costa Rica. No offense to those countries, but if we are spending the most money per person per year on health care, then that’s unacceptable company. The main problem is that we aren’t attacking the real issue. We use the term “health care” even though it is more like “disease care.” Our system is a very reactive, emergency-based model. If you experience a crisis, then we have the technologies and capabilities to handle those situations, and that is amazing. However, our health care doesn’t truly help us produce health. It doesn’t really support proactive health measures like eating healthily and exercising. You can’t go to the local gym or grocery store and try to buy a membership or some organic vegetables with your health insurance card. Instead our health insurance tends to pay for expensive Band-Aids to mask symptoms. 95% of health care dollars are spent dealing with conditions and symptoms that are already present when it would be more beneficial to prevent those things from occurring in the first place.

It’s easy to want to blame the government or the health care industry for our current health care predicament, but Americans should look at themselves. Health care reform doesn’t start in Washington with government; it begins with our lifestyle. Unfortunately, most people don’t take any action to improve their health until they feel pain or suffer a crisis. If you think about it, many health issues are more progressed by the time someone feels pain. Heart attacks are often the first sign of heart disease, so it is better to be proactive and worry more about how your body is functioning instead of only worrying about how you feel. To truly take back control of our health, we need to eat better, move better, and think better. It goes back to the triad of health (or 3 T’s).

Chiropractic has been a proactive, preventative option that has produced some nice cost-saving results. One study followed 70,000 people, who utilized a chiropractor as their primary doctor, for 7 years. This group experienced 60% less hospital admissions, 59% less days in the hospital, 62% less outpatient surgeries, and 85% less spent on pharmaceuticals. Chiropractic in conjunction with positive lifestyle changes such as proper nutrition, exercise, and good mental health can transform the health of our communities.

At Radiant Life Chiropractic, our goal is to transform health by providing chiropractic care throughout Hatboro, Horsham, Warminster, and Warrington communities without the use of drugs or surgery. Call now to schedule a complimentary consultation and allow us to get you started on the road to true health!