Intelligent Discussion

Finally it's hot. Finally it's summer here in the Northeast. While sitting around the pool with friends, their daughter, son-in-law (who is a doctor), and grandson (who is four and thinks he's Spiderman), we began to discuss the issue of health care reform. We all admitted that with another 50 million people to cover, there would be some additional delays, but let's face it, we are accustomed to delays already. Just this summer, it took three weeks for my mammogram to be read and reported on, a process that used to occur right there in the office with the radiologist on the day of the procedure, along with a manual breast examination. Remember when?

Not anymore and more people are without access to mammograms.

We also agreed that health care reform would not work without a real education program to get Americans to live more healthfully: obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and asthma are the worst of the chronic diseases, and to some extent, these are controllable with educational campaigns, and perhaps a jab at the fast food industry, although there was disagreement on that.

A Big Mac without cheese is 572 calories, 50% of which come from fat, 60% of which is saturated, that's the bad kind.

A Big Mac with cheese is 704 calories, almost 70% of which comes from fat.

The cost of a Big Mac is $3.57, which makes it financially affordable to too many people, while making the consequences of eating a diet of Big Macs unsustainable for the planet and for the rest of us.

So how do we get people to eat nutritionally well and affordably? Admittedly the poorest people in the country are often not compliant, having fewer resources with which to make decisions. But can any system of health care reform work without getting Americans to eat properly?

That's where the CEO of Whole Foods John Mackey comes into the argument. According to the leader of the "whole and fresh foods" movement, we don't need health care reform, we need tort reform, and need to change our way of eating.

As an attorney, I agree that we need tort reform on medical malpractice suits, too. However, in order to make it work, we need a policing system that will remove incompetent doctors, streamline medical records and track those better, and turn individual cases into opportunities to review and reform the mistakes that have caused harm.

So this afternoon we chose to disagree about the level of calamity that might be upon us, its timing, and whether we can do anything to stop it, but no one raised a voice, everyone listened, and frankly, we would be better to defy history and act like grownups about this issue.

Rick Perlstein of the Washington Post wrote a great article about just how much crazies have been a part of American political discourse.

Somehow I wish we could be ahistorical just this once before it's too late.