There is a lot of argument and disagreement in this election. This is putting it lightly. I know I see my fair share of attacks, from both political parties, that make some callous allegations about the other. One attack issue centers around health, specifically the insurance coverage debate.
Politician Jane Doe claims that politician John Doe will “take away your health insurance.” Or politician John Doe will make sure “you get the health coverage you deserve” if elected over politician Jane Doe. Nothing irks me more than if a politician uses children or a marginalized individual as a pawn in their smear campaign. If politician “ABC” is elected over politician “XYZ” you might as well write death sentences for your children, grandparents and “fill in the blank” minority group.
Can a government, political party, business, etc. take away your health insurance? Sure. But can any of them take away your health? Only if you let them.
For too long we have been putting our health in other people's hands. What is more dangerous than a political system taking away your healthcare insurance? YOU giving up on the care of YOUR health.
Chiropractor Dr. Drew Rubin explained this topic very succinctly:
“We are focusing on the wrong thing. Do you think the problem is who pays for the insurance; who pays for our health care? NO: it’s what we’re paying for, NOT who is. We need to stop arguing over the question ‘WHO should pay for it?’ and start asking "WHAT are we paying for?"
Your health starts with you: not with what insurance you have and not with what political party is in control of the White House or State House. Please don't mistake my position as "anti-health insurance." I do think we as a society deserve coverage when it comes to our health. The problem lies in our understanding of what "healthy" coverage is.
Waiting to get sick does not insure your health. And that is exactly what we are paying for right now in our society: “sick insurance” not health insurance. We wait until we get sick and then want someone else to pay for us to get healthy. In actuality, we don’t ‘get sick’ as much as we ‘lose health.’
Sickness is the absence of health, not the other way around.
The root of the problem lies in our misconception of how the word ‘insurance’ is used with the modifier, ‘health.’ One other insurance, in particular, has the same misconstrued understanding and that is life insurance.
Does life insurance protect your life? Of course not; it insures your death. Paying your life insurance premiums does not ensure that you will stay alive.
But to call life insurance “death insurance” is not an easy sell. The same is said about health insurance. Health insurance does not protect your health but insures your sickness. Some of the time. If it protected your health, it would pay you when you were healthy to ensure your well-being.
If we are all created equal, we are all created with the same right to our life. Health is no different. So start asking the question:
Jarek Esarco, DC, CACCP is a pediatric, family wellness and upper cervical specific Chiropractor. He is an active member of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA). Dr. Jarek has postgraduate certification in Pediatric Chiropractic through the ICPA. Dr. Jarek also has postgraduate certification in the HIO Specific Brain Stem technique through The TIC Institute. Dr. Jarek is happily married to his wife Regina. They live in Youngstown, Ohio with their daughter Ruby.
