Health Care

Fatal Error

Changing the focus of care to this is more than just emotional idealism, it is good business.  Care should not be about codes, procedures, medications, tests, or interventions, but instead about helping people live their lives with as few problems as possible.  We need an economy that thrives when the patient costs the system less.

Any attempt to reform without this change will ultimately fail.

My Turning Point

As an incurable compulsive introspect, I tend to brood, ponder, contemplate, and (of course) muse on \”big ideas,\” such as:

  • What makes people choose things which cause themselves harm?
  • Are some people better people than others, or are they just more skilled at hiding their problems?
  • Is pain really a bad thing, or is our aversion to it a sign of human weakness?
  • Do dogs watch Oprah?
  • Does God ever wear a hat?
  • Why is \”big ideas\” in quotes?

Tough questions.  

Lately I\’ve been contemplating the nature of human awareness:

  • Is self-awareness (the ability to think of ourselves in the first person) a uniquely human trait, and is lack of self-awareness the essence of mental illness?
  • Is empathy, or other-awareness the highest of human traits?  Is this what the biblical idea of being \”made in the image of God\” really means?

Yeah, that\’s a lot deeper than about dogs watching Oprah.