Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Reality Check & the Real Issues of Life

Medical scares never come at the right time. And when we get more concerned about the cost of health services than the actual benefit of the service we run the dangerous risk of getting our priorities seriously out of whack.

I was reminded of this recently when I hurriedly collected a member of the family to take them to a specialist appointment; she was late, so we both were. Needless to say I was a little frazzled. When we arrived we were asked about a special ‘standard’ service that cost a nominal fee extra--with me not really in the mood for it, I declined. In retrospect I can remember feeling a little cheap.

Not twenty minutes later we were in with our medical specialist provider and they picked something up that this special ‘standard’ service would certainly help with. For a new moment, the prime concern was something other than cost--health, in one word.

We so often complain about health and medical costs and simply forget how blessed and privileged we actually are in having access to the technology and the wonderfully knowledgeable and skilled medical and health professionals we have in the Western world.

There’s something very salient about the thought that our health ties us to our physical mortality. It reminds us that for all the money in the world, we cannot buy our health.

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