Why Pay When You Can See a Doctor For Free?

In 1984 my daughter was unwell with something inexplicable. Weeks and weeks went by and she just wasn't pulling out of it. I was getting desperate. Within a three month period I took my daughter to 13 different Physicians. I became very frustrated trying to integrate the 13 radically different opinions given. 

It finally dawned on me that conventional medicine alone wasn't going to take my family's health where it needed to go. The only solution was that I had to roll up my sleeves and take up the challenge my self.  Health very quickly became my priority. Over the next decade, Holistic Health became my career.

Neither Well or Ill

A client recently said to me that she felt unsupported with conventional health care. She “wasn't ill enough to get her Doctor’s attention and yet not well enough to be happy with her life”. Like most ‘Baby Boomers’, she had much higher expectations for herself, and wasn't prepared to lower the bar to the point where she had to accept that her concerns where all due to ‘old age’.

Is Free Really Free

Many people in Canada where I live, assume that medical health care is free.  It does appear to be free. Years ago, Dr. Jane Fulton, Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa, came to speak in my home town in rural Ontario. (At that time she had been meeting with First Lady Hillary Clinton, to discuss the development of Medicare in the US.)

Dr. Fulton very clearly showed the residents of Huron County, that Medicare wasn’t for free. In fact, my baby-boomer generation is paying the interest on the loan that financed my mother’s health care in her declining years. My daughter’s generation will have to foot the bill.

Ontario residents are now seeing a reductions of insured services. Many preventative services are now being categorized by OHIP as non-essential. There are discussions about a multi-tiered Health Care System where the better service will only be available to those who can pay from their own pocket.

Put Yourself in the Center

I encourage people to command the central and pivotal role in their health care.  Find the health care providers of all and any persuasion that fit perfectly into your team. As well, take the time to do your own research. Make this journey your own.

Making health and wellness a priority means we need to be pro-active in our own healthcare. We create health by making the commitment to care for ourselves every day; physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

The bottom line is: without the foundation of good health, we don’t have a future.

Food for Thought
_Nelda