This past week something strange happened to me. I saw the light and realized that my recent lethargy was the result of not-so healthy choices I have been making in recent weeks. Not healthy choices in the sense of relationships; well, perhaps there too, but in a different way. I have a relationship with food, and the savory deliciousness of all things delectable and decadent that hit my taste buds. In addition, gluttonous eating sprees that I justify by the mere fact that I make it a point to hit the gym at minimum three times per week.
As I approach the age of 40 my body is changing. It isn’t the athletic machine it once was. My joints ache more, my muscles take longer to heal after a workout and my formerly flat stomach is no longer holding off the inevitable middle-aged paunch that so many men obtain as a result of reaching the milestone of middle age. I looked at myself in the mirror, and of course my vanity was appalled at what I was becoming physically; a caricature of my former athletic self, suffering from more and more stomach ailments than I care to remember from my youth.
I decided to contact a friend of mine who is a fitness competitor and fitness trainer in San Jose, CA. I told her how I was working out, what I was eating, and what my goals were. She replied to me that what I was feeling was normal for someone who has made physical fitness a life priority. She also mentioned that strict diets were self defeating and that it was better to make healthy choices the exception rather than the rule, and to moderate the intake of foods that were causing my plight. As a result, I purchased her services as a fitness trainer to help me get back on track and try to regain some of the glory from my mid to late 20s both physically and aesthetically.
The point I am trying to make here is about choices. Noticing that you are not happy with something physically about yourself ultimately begins with the individual, and is not the province of government intervention. Even more so, choosing to make your health should always be your number one priority and that in and of itself is not subject to the public interest.
Healthy choices circumvent the need for public healthcare, which is an after the fact solution to the problem. It is lazy to want such a solution and it says nothing for people’s choices as individuals. Certainly, there are specific catastrophic conditions such as Cancer, autoimmune disorders like Celiac disease, or even ALS that cannot be predicted. If one reads up on the first of the two mentioned diseases, however, one can learn that each can have risk lessened by merely adhering to healthier lifestyle choices such as exercise, cutting back saturated fat consumption, cutting out gluten intake, quitting smoking etc. Though the risk may be lessened, it may not completely prevent one from getting them. That’s not the point though. The point again, comes back to choices.
I once had a girlfriend (who happens to be a Progressive Democrat), and I recall a time she and I were considering going shopping for groceries. She wanted to go to Whole Foods but I told her that their produce was way too expensive and that we should consider going to another supermarket to save money. I’ll never forget what she said to me: “Jon, you spend more money at the front end for food, so you can lessen what you pay at the back end for health care costs later.” These words did not ring hollow, and there was so much truth to what she was saying. She was advocating choices that were a form of preventable medicine that did not require doctors visits, or future calamity with diseases I could have prevented. Her assertion on healthy choices was completely in line with my ideology of individual responsibility for ones own health. Obamacare, is a back end solution that circumvents choice, and ultimately makes health care a public interest issue; thus, individual choice must also become a public interest issue.
Consider another example of healthy choices and the public interest. I was once shopping at a Safeway and got into line with my six or seven items of healthy food. In front of me was a morbidly obese woman with four children that were way too chubby for what their age should allow. The woman had a push-cart that was filled to the top, and overflowing with junk food. I saw boxes of cookies, Fruit Loops, Twinkies, and several cases of soda (not diet) in her cart. I saw absolutely no fruits and vegetables there. I watched as the cashier rang her food up, and was staggered at the total cost this woman was paying for her, and her family ($400). What surprised me most is something I will never forget: She paid for the whole thing with an EBT card. I was floored, and I thought to myself, “We are paying to subsidize this woman’s unhealthy choices for her, and her children, and we will end up paying the medical costs later when she and her children get sick.”
The fact of the matter is, I don’t really care what this woman’s choices are, but where I do care is when I am made to foot the bill for other people’s unhealthy lifestyle. That is the main problem with public health care systems. ObamaCare is a back end solution that circumvents choice for the individual and collectivizes that choice as a public interest. I don’t want to pay for someone’s choice on what they eat, anymore than I want to pay for someone elses’s choice to irresponsibly sleep with another, risking pregnancy or serious illness.
Ultimately, health care starts with a choice and that choice is in the lifestyle you choose to lead. I don’t think it’s in the public interest as to what choices an individual makes, so long as those choices do not harm anyone else, or ask them to pay. Not everyone can look like a fitness model, competition bodybuilder or athlete, but certainly, people can make these choices without the assistance of government dictating what is good for them, and further, demanding we, the taxpayer to subsidize failure of others to govern their own appetites.
