Healthscare

I've been thinking a lot lately about the so-called healthcare debate (much as I try to avoid it—I mean, even the monsters on Sesame Street are talking about it), and it's easy to see the viewpoint of both sides. Everyone wants affordable healthcare, but one side thinks that to keep costs down you have to involve the government, and the other side thinks you have to let the market regulate itself.

In reality, however, the only way for the health system to recover is for each American to do three things:

First, get off the couch. Getting 30 minutes of aerobic exercise three times a week would make everyone healthier. You start to see the benefits right away, and there's less chance of your future involving lengthy discussions including words such as "statin" and "monstrous."

The second step is closely related to the first. It would help us all if, every day, we each tried to eat something that is still recognizable as coming from some sort of plant. I'm not saying we should all go vegan (I believe strongly in the bacon group), but it could hardly hurt us to get some fruits and veggies into our lives.

Finally, we need to stop suing the pants off of each other, especially when it comes to medical problems. Sure, if your doctor sews your leg to your shoulder and your arm to your waist, you have a legitimate complaint (though you may want to have someone else sign the forms if it's your writing hand that is now wearing a sock). But if you got a scar from your brain tumor removal, the doctor still saved your life, so get over it. I'm told that one reason doctor's office visits cost so much is because malpractice insurance is horrifically expensive due to the sheer number of suits.

If everyone followed these guidelines, it would ease a large portion of the burden from the healthcare system. People would still get sick, but the obesity rate would go down, as well as treatment costs for all the associated diseases. The lessened demand on the system would result in lower costs. The only way to fix this is for us all to fix ourselves. Otherwise, the government is going to keep trying to force their solutions on us. And frankly, it would cost less than a trillion dollars a year to make us all eat broccoli every day.