Who Do We Trust?
One thing the pandemic has highlighted is a general lack of trust in our government when it comes to how to stay healthy. We have been instructed by two presidents, by multiple federal agencies and by the governors of our states as they sought to influence us on how best to make our way safely through this pandemic. We heard that masks weren’t important and then they were, that we needed to wipe everything down and then that it wasn’t that critical, that it would take over two years to get a vaccine and then it took 6 months, that we needed to get 60% of Americans vaccinated to reach herd immunity and then 70% and maybe higher. I don’t know if any of this contradictory guidance was politically motivated, was done to guide public behavior or resulted from the lack of good information. What I do know is that each of us had to decide for ourselves who we trusted.
We are fast approaching the time when there will be vaccines available for all who want them – many states already have opened up their vaccines to anyone 16 or above. This means that soon the only thing keeping us from vaccinating everyone will be those who are refusing to get vaccinated. Our government has started a campaign to convince those that are hesitant to get vaccinated, to step up and get their shot. There have been advertisements, speeches, and blogs (like this one I authored), encouraging people to get vaccinated. It quickly became evident that the best was to influence people to get vaccinated was to get them to talk with people they trust . . . their doctor, their religious leader, or a close friend or relative.
While I hope that if you are hesitant to get vaccinated you talk to someone you trust for advice on getting vaccinated, I have another reason for making this point – the people that know us and our individual health status, especially our doctors, are bound to be the most accurate when they give us advice on what will keep us, each one of us, healthy. We are correct in trusting those people.
While the federal government handled the coordination of finding an effective vaccine and providing stimulus money to help our economy, it was up to the governors of each state to decide how their state would guide its citizens on mask mandates, business openings, and the distribution of the vaccines. It just is logical that the closer those who advise us or make decisions on our behalf are to us, both physically and individually knowledgeable, the better those decisions will be.
I’m afraid that our government has forgotten this powerful fact and continues to try to control our healthcare from Washington through one-size-fits-all solutions. The most powerful approach we can have for our health is to give our local health providers more choices so they can treat us as individuals. For instance, our healthcare shouldn’t be subjected to the price control strategies like importing prescription drug pricing schemes from foreign countries. When we control prices, we chill investment and stymie innovation. Scientists continue to give us tools to personalize our healthcare; what we need are more choices, not fewer. Our doctors and local healthcare providers shouldn’t have fewer choices because they are hesitant to prescribe prescription drugs that have been imported without the tracking and safety guarantees that we rely on.
One method of price fixing is for the government to insert itself into the negotiations between insurance companies and drug manufacturers. This once again is an approach that seeks to negate the free-market functions that have been working in Medicare for 15 years. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
It is evident that our trust in the government has suffered during this pandemic, it seems foolish to sit back and let this same government have more control over our healthcare. As you hear about proposals to change our healthcare, ask yourselves whether their proposed change will give those we trust the most, your doctors and other local healthcare providers, more choices and tools to treat your individual health needs most effectively. We’ll work to keep you informed about proposed changes that affect your healthcare.
One more thing, at Seniors Speak Out we periodically survey seniors and find out how they feel about healthcare issues that affect them. We recently sent out a survey and got over 400 responses. We will be talking about the results of that survey at a virtual town hall webinar this Wednesday at 2:00 pm ET. You can register for the town hall here. You don’t have to turn on your camera on if you join on your computer and there is also a phone option if you prefer that. Hope to talk with you then.
Best, Thair