It’s no surprise to anyone when we say that Nova Scotia is in a Healthcare Crisis.
Inefficiencies and lack of infrastructure is causing systemic overload, at the same time doctors are being squeezed and experiencing an overwhelming amount of burn-out. COVID responses, staff shortages, postponed surgeries, you name it, it’s probably contributing to the problem in some degree.
The system has been in trouble for years and now it’s at a breaking point where the repercussions are being passed on to the taxpayer.
I won’t pretend to know how to evaluate economic decisions at the scale…
But let’s just talk about the massive elephant in the room for a minute.
The bureaucratic solution
The solution that has been thrown at the problem is not much different than previous solutions that have come from the government.
More money!
More money allows healthcare to immediately address the fires that are happening. There is no doubt that the money that the federal government has allocated for healthcare specific spending was needed at this time.
While I am hoping that these changes result in some pressure relief, I can’t help but feel like regardless of what is done with that money, we’re still going to be in the same place in 3 years.
Throwing more money at a problem like this is a bandaid.
To quote the late Christopher Wallace – “More money, more problems”
Zoom in to personal health
What would the outcome be if we threw money at our personal health?
Well, for anyone with healthy habits in place, it’s going to propel their health forward and certainly give them more opportunity to continue to improve their health.
What about the person without healthy habits in place? Would more money to spend on health actually improve their health?
More money won’t do anything if your lifestyle doesn’t consist of healthy habits.
I’d even go as far to say that it would likely make it worse.
There are no shortcuts
More money to spend on personal health when the underlying habits haven’t been addressed inevitably means someone is going to start looking the shortcut when we know that the shortcut doesn’t exist. The latest smoothie program, magic pills or beans, or this one food that doctors didn’t want you to know about.
The reason why more money doesn’t fix a problem like this is because money can’t fix bad habits.
The elephant in the room
In the Nova Scotia media surrounding this healthcare crisis, the number of times that the key terms “diet” and “exercise” have been mentioned is embarrassing.
While there is no questions that there are many people inside of the healthcare system who cannot be helped with diet and exercise alone, MOST people could improve their life enough with 6 months of diet and exercise to reduce their reliance on the healthcare system drastically.
If you are experiencing any sort of chronic illness, diet and exercise would likely have profound effects on your wellbeing and potentially start to reverse some issues you might be dealing with. If you are experiencing chronic illness though, you should probably check with your doctor first (the irony, I know…).
Preventative healthcare
If you’re reading this, you’re probably already taking steps to reduce your reliance on the healthcare system. Keep up the great work. YOU are a great investment.
You need to be practicing preventative healthcare. Treat yourself in a way that helps you heal, grow and thrive. Diet and exercises isn’t just how we prevent decrepitude, it’s how we increase our capabilities and expand our life. It’s how we turn ourselves into superheroes and fight off sickness.
A lateral move to reduce healthcare pressure
We need to talk about diet and exercise more.
Politicians, schools, and our government need to be prioritizing the messaging that reducing the burden on our healthcare system starts at home. Talking about how we can integrate diet and exercise into an ever increasing sedentary society needs to be a priority.
The starting point with diet and exercise can seem like a steep uphill climb, but the reality is, once you get over the initial challenge of building new habits it’s easy to maintain them. We need to be showing people who are intimidated by exercise that it isn’t all bicep bros and mirror posing classes.
Learn about diet and exercise.
Experience different foods, exercise programs, and styles.
Do a little bit every day – massive changes all at once hardly ever work out.
Throw expectations out the window and just know that you are doing your body a favour.