Health Choices That Fit
People make trade offs in life. They have to choose which things to prioritize and it isn’t easy. In fact, the most difficult tradeoffs are so hard that often, those who make different choices are seen as “other.” “Others”, people who are seen as so different that they can’t be sympathized with are discounted. Religion and politics often cause otherness.
Health issues like fitness, diet and healthcare coverage also divide people. It seems like those kinds of choices wouldn’t go there, but you are your habits, so it does.
People who are mindful, even obsessed with healthy choices have trouble understanding those who make risky choices. People who get lots of cardio don’t understand why every able bodied person doesn’t want the natural endorphin high badly enough to work for it. There are countless hard choices that make it difficult to clearly see the different choices made by others.
People who give up a lot to get healthcare coverage have difficulty understanding that some people don’t even have the option to make that same choice, or to even the freedom to choose healthier habits. How could that be? Dave Ramsey gives an example of an exhausted single Mom on the financial edge who decides to splurge on McDonalds for her kids on the way home after a long day, but it causes an overdraft and the end result is hundreds of dollars in cascading fees that she doesn’t have. It’s hard for someone who hasn’t been on the edge like that to understand how easily it could happen.
I remember having a conversation with relatives at a dinner table. At the time of the conversation, one was a counselor employed by a mental healthcare provider. While expressing political opinions, she said “Everybody has health insurance.” Even if she had a limited idea of who get’s to be included in “everybody,” expressing that opinion while working in the industry, especially since she worked in a low opportunity area, surprised me. In fact it seemed more than simply surprising (but that is an entirely separate post, one that vents so hard, I’ll never publish it). I responded “Three of the five people sitting at this table are without healthcare coverage.” It wasn’t the first time my life choices, and the choices of others led m/use to a place she couldn’t feel or see, and it won’t be the last.
No one lives in a vacuum either. The most personal choices for one person often affect others quite a lot, especially in healthcare. There’s nothing more personal than your body, what you put in it and how you use it. It’s really hard for people to connect with and look at the widespread effect of choices that are so deeply personal. Those who make frequent unhealthy choices aren’t usually in a place to be able to think well about the effects on their own bodies, much less the healthcare system burden at large.
In the US, our choices are a lot harder than in many other countries because access to healthcare isn’t distributed equally across the population. So, if you’re reading this, from another country, what I’m saying here could sound very strange coming from the land of freedom, opportunity and equality.
I spent the first 23 years of my adult life married to someone with a career path that included family healthcare coverage. We were just starting out. After he left the military there were times when I worried about deductibles, but for the most part we had the security of being “covered.” That was and still is at the root how I measure(d) “enough.” Enough is when you don’t have to be financially afraid when deciding if your kid needs to see a doctor.
While I was married I spent a lot of time as a homemaker, did a lot of volunteer work, and also did part time and contract work. After I divorced in y early 40s, I never broke out of that gig-economy space where employers try pretty hard to keep workers in a scenario that doesn’t provide benefits. As a result, my healthcare coverage since has been sporadic with a great deal more time uncovered than covered. Other personal choices have kept me under and unemployed for the last 12 years.
I’ve given up a lot of freedoms that other people have, but I’ve gained some that others don’t. I have more time to make healthy habit choices like riding my bike, but less freedom to make costly healthcare choices like annual check ups, and other things some take for granted. In fact, I have less freedom to make costly choices of any kind. Of the options that I have, I made the choices that fit, but, when people are in comparing mind, they tend to compare what they themselves gave up against what other people got (without regard for the trade offs those other people made). That’s how people become “other” to them. They tend to group with people who made like choices, and the sense of separation from others expands.
For the most part, I’m okay with the choices I’ve made and I hope that I won’t pay too dearly as my life unfolds. In some countries and/or economic spectrums people live their entire lives without much in the way of healthcare services. In some cultures and economies that is more risky than in others. I’m aware that, if I have a catastrophic illness, my choices could cost me my life, but I’m active and pay attention to what I put in my body. I’m far from fanatical or perfect about it, but it is possible, likely even, that the fear of what might happen is keeping me healthier than I would be sitting at a desk 8-10 hours a day having a deductible as my biggest concern in paying for healthcare. Choices have layered effects.
In our “Move” page, I’ll talk about the things I do to maintain healthy aging. They won’t be a fit for everyone. There are so many people in so many places living such different lives. But, for the most part, what’s healthy for any of us is healthy for all of us and you can find small things that are useful anywhere. It is my hope is that for whatever time you spend here on this page, you will find at least one new helpful thing to carry with you and improve your life. I hope the habits and choices I share here will be different enough to be fresh and worth adopting, but not so different that they are dismissed.
