Health Care Stories: Norfolk, VA

Mrs. Mapp counsels us all to take our health care into our own hands.



My husband and I have no story, really--we are as healthy as horses, but still have insurance to cover all the annual testing we have done. Our diet consists mainly of salads, with meat side orders, and we drink decaf tea. Our only carb sources are wild rice and red potatoes.

You see, instead of "sick maintenance" as people usually see a doctor for, we think of our doctor as a "mechanic", giving us diagnostic readouts of our blood and urine, heart EKGs, or other tests interpretable to lay people, and we go to the web to see what we can do for anything out of normal parameters. If someone's cholesterol is out of whack, we add more fiber, more B vitamins, or less fat in the diet. If blood pressure is high, we look to the web to find out what we can do to lower it through food, supplements, exercise, etc.--no fancy prescriptions here!

If more people took charge of their own health as we do, there wouldn't be a health care crisis, because nobody would NEED health insurance. I wrote all this to Rep. John Boehner in the form of a health care proposal, adding that the only government money to be spent is in the form of fruit and veggie subsidizations, not health insurance ones. This would put farmers back in business, put higher quality foods back in our systems, and get us all out of the waiting rooms!

The very first doctor we should all be seeing is a nutritionist or dietician--someone who can design a diet for whatever ails you, or whatever you're trying to avoid (because of family genetics). Let's subsidize this.

Then, the second doctor we should all be seeing is a gym instructor, who can design a workout plan specific to your needs, physical ability, and energy level. Let's subsidize this.

With these two things taken care of--a specific eating plan and workout plan--all we really need from an actual DOCTOR is the usual annual checkup and tests, which insurance covers, or would be cheap enough to afford in cash if saved for yearly. A flat-fee plan would be extremely useful here.

I would also like to propose a drive-thru tax, to be applied only when food is sold through a drive-thru window, to cover the environmental costs of idling while waiting in line, and the lack of energy expenditure from not getting one's lard ass out of the car to get the junk food. Basically, YOU WANT IT, SO GET OUT OF THE CAR AND GET IT!

My ultimate dream is to return to a time before fast food existed, but culture will never let that happen. The best we can do now is to simply choose not to eat it, and by making REAL foods cheaper than Mickey D's, we can make the choice easier.

Our doctor is merely a consultant--WE OURSELVES are the primary care physicians here, and that's how everyone should think and feel about health care.

Mrs. Mapp
Norfolk, VA