Healthcare vs. health care

Something very dangerous has happened to health care in this country. Before the socialists stole the phrase (and made it one word), "health care" was something you DO, and "medical care" was something DONE TO YOU.

Somehow, the "something you do" part has vanished, and health care got folded into medical care and called "healthcare". You are now considered helpless to manage your own health. Instead, you must rely on expensive professionals and exotic pharmaceuticals. This is statistical, scientific, and moral nonsense at its most dangerous.

My wife is a doctor. 80% of the damage she sees walking into her clinic is self-inflicted. Bad diets, sedentary lifestyle, poor emotional management, substance abuse, and overall carelessness damage a lot more people than misfortune or a lack of medical intervention. People take a lot better care of their cars than they do of themselves. It's like they get raging drunk, piss in their car's gas tank, and drive it through a brick wall, then expect the insurance company (or the government, or the wall owner) to fix the damage good as new.

Sorry. The human body is a wonderful mechanism, but it is way beyond human capability to repair "good as new". The body requires proper inputs and functions poorly with substitutes. Sugar in the mouth can be as damaging as sugar in the gas tank. Damage the body, and it will partially heal itself, and sometimes a doctor can help that process. But damage accumulates, and the healing is never complete. No amount of expensive medical care can compensate for a lack of health care. Clean water and good diet prevents more infectious disease than penicillin ever did.

Medical care is becoming increasingly expensive, because of the increasing lack of health care. We do indeed have a crisis, and it can be solved by throwing away the potato chips, turning off the goddamned TV, and spending the time exercising instead.

DyingBadlyIsExpensive. Hospice can save half of what we spend on medical care, and provide better outcomes.

The government cannot provide health care; it can only take away the tools that individuals need to care for themselves. The government can pay for huge amounts of medical care, but there is not enough money in the world to buy medical care that is as good as responsible, individual health care.