Hate healthcare? It’s your fault.
Paradigm shifts are hard and the human psyche is primed to be cautious of “the new”. The American psyche is even more headstrong — we’re an entitled mishmash of merit and charity that changes on a groupthink dime.
So when I launched a one-man crusade to shift our system from a health insurance-centric model to a patient-provider model, I knew I had my work cut out. Little did I realize the toll our unique American brand of passive-aggressive apathy would take on me.
I approached from the academic perspective. Emails, hand written letters, tweets, and Facebook posts to economists, think tanks, professional associations and peer reviewed journals. I heard back from a few who said “yeah, good luck with that.”
I threw in some marketing strategies, spending thousands on an explainer video, uploading the YouTube link to e-mail marketing posts, crafting a website with complimentary business cards. Upon handing them out to people, a look of “ugh, do I have to read?” taught me all I needed to know.
I enticed the liberal and conservatives, messaging multiple media outlets from NPR to Fox News to CNN and contacting journalists of all stripes in-between. I soberly learned media needs sensation and universal access to affordable healthcare just isn’t sexy.
I cajoled politicians by calling their offices and staff, sending faxes and emails, posting on social media and even donating to all the major campaigns. I learned they’re likely not interested in taking the federal government out of private healthcare transactions.
I approached foundation after foundation, along with social entrepreneurs, almost all of whom employ the tired phrase “we do not review or consider unsolicited proposals.” So if you have an idea that’s worth 3.2 trillion dollars, you’re out of luck unless someone behind that large rich wall asks you for it.
Now I sit here, facing a Donald Trump presidency with no viable healthcare reform idea on the table and ask myself:
Why am I working so hard to educate people who’ve so systematically and eloquently barricaded themselves from free thought?
It’s rhetorical. After years of personal therapy and psychiatric training, I know why. Because I know we can be better, know better, and do better when we’re educated.
We’re at fault for this broken healthcare system that every single American agrees doesn’t work the way it should. Educate yourself with a new paradigm for healthcare: www.changehealth.today
We can create citizen-shareholder state based companies that change the economics of healthcare while empowering patients and restoring physician autonomy. We can provide a social safety net based on preventative care that directly stimulates economic growth. We can help veterans and eliminate mental health stigma completely.
Or we can keeping suffering in passive-aggressive apathy. Your call.
