Health Systems and Delivery – Understanding and Strengthening the Body
Keeping us wellRecreation and training the well body
Connecting mind and body health
Medical research and extending the quality of life
Financing access to medical utility
Continuing the discussion of the key topics list today is Health Care Systems and Delivery. What
is it that keeps us healthy? How does health and health care relate to quality
of life in the United States
Good questions, each and every one of them. Perhaps we
should begin with a definition of quality of life: (from Wikipedia) an important concern in economics and political
science; a measure of the overall effect of medical issues on a patient; a
socioeconomic indicator of health/wealth/well-being.
If our body is healthy – hale, hardy, relatively free of
aches and pains, functioning properly – then we are able to move about freely,
experience life acutely with all of our senses, and generally become unaware of
our physical being. Our mind and senses are free to be, think, perceive and
process surroundings, both physical and mental. We are fully functioning and
capable of performing tasks. In this state of being we can participate fully in
life’s possibilities and creativity.
Absent a healthy status, we are operating on less than full
power; we are hampered; our thinking processes, although strong and productive,
may be short circuited by pain, annoyance, short temper, depression, and any
combination of distractions which lessen our effectiveness. A healthy body is a
fully functional entity; an unhealthy body is only partially functioning.
Keeping our body well provides a strong building block for
quality of life. Wellness becomes an important resource for many aspects of
living well for self and others.
Recreation provides a discipline of body movements which
lead to healthy, toned bodies. It is an enjoyable and stimulating method of
maintaining wellness. This seems a pretty basic fact of life. Sports and
recreation are associated with one another but as participation, both physical
and mental. Being involved earns the wellness benefits.
A well body is an essential element of mental health. If we
feel good we think better, have a more positive attitude and mental outlook. We
see possibility rather than impossibility. It is worth our nation’s effort to
build strong, able bodies in order to support able mindedness and national
possibility.
If we can agree so far with the above points, then it
follows that caring for ailing bodies is a priority activity, one assigned to
the medical professions. It is their job to use their accumulated knowledge and
skills to heal the sick and restore them to health. As years pass we accumulate
more medical knowledge and seek yet more via research. Organized and directed
research leads to discoveries sharable to the multitudes.
Thus two key medical activities are pulled into focus: the
need to intentionally seek desired results from disciplined research, and maintenance
of delivery systems for medical practice.
Both need the power of organization, supervision, innovation
and funding. The establishment of medical institutions do a good job with these
but they are not perfect. More needs to be accomplished. With the addition of
insurance companies, manufacturers of medical equipment and supplies, vendors
of those same supplies and equipment, medical schools, professional societies
governing each specific medical specialty, many power centers develop within
the medical community. Legal and liability issues arise and with it
interference by state and federal regulators and law makers. With that come the
lobbyists. Then the ideologues. Then the politicians.
What is clearly a key topic of benefit for mankind becomes
mired by purely human behaviors. And then the funding questions begin and along
with it the control of the entire arena. Progress slows in medical research,
medical education, delivery systems, government policy, insurance cooperation,
and collaboration throughout the entire health care industry.
The complications are to be expected. Runaway innovations
can quickly short cut values and ethics without our being aware. Slowing down
does have its benefits. But the argument of the usefulness of health care and
well being provided to everyone as easily and cheaply as possible should not be
lost. The utility of health care and health maintenance is apparent.
Health is a key component of quality of life. We need to
ensure its nurture is present in all of our lives. Does social policy currently
support this aspiration? Or are we playing games with this concept?
February 7, 2012
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