Health Care Reform: Health of All Americans Should Improve

As congress begins to discuss Health Care Reform, we wonder how the health care system can be fixed.

Some of us in the health care profession have some of the answers already: don’t get sick.

It is cheaper for everyone in our society for all of us to stay healthy and well than to be sick. Obviously. Of course, we will get sick or need to see a medical professional, occasionally. A slip of the knife while slicing the apple, a fall from the stool or strep throat are just part of life, no matter how careful or healthy we are.

But there are services that should be included in health care reform that is not part of our health care system now: wellness related services.

We want the health of all American to improve – regardless of their current health status or their current insured status. We currently serve the sick population. We don’t help people in the early stages of disease to keep them from getting sicker. We don’t catch them in the pre-sick stages and help them reverse it. That just isn’t what our system is set up to do.

Registered dietitians, true nutrition experts, can help with this. If only physicians would refer and health care plans would cover the cost. Nutrition plays a role in improving so many disease states, but also preventing many as well. Proper nutrition can improve the health of everyone: children and adults, young and old.

Nutrition services from a registered dietitian and other wellness related needs to be part of the new health care policy in the United States – part of every insurance plan, available for every American.