For the last year especially, everyone has been talking about health care reform.  Views from every side have been presented, fought over, dismissed, accepted, and distorted, etc.  The ironic thing about the whole argument of "health care reform" is that it never was about "health care. " It was always about "health insurance."  The United States is sick, we rank number 37 amoung industrialized nations for health, and it only keeps dropping.  One group blames the problem on our lack of a "single-payer" system, others blame corporate dominance on our health care system (and food system).  All the sides hold a valid part of the argument. 

The biggest issue, I feel, however is a tough one to swallow.  Thats because its really the only one we can personally do something about.  Its called personal responsibility!  We all have a tendancy to want to blame external "powers" for our problems, and from a certain perspective thats true, its just not productive. 

Both the government and big insurance companies see only one thing:  The bottom line.  How do YOU fit into the bottom line?  YOU don't.  YOU become a statistic.  What's the alternative?  The alternative is to stand up for YOU and take responsibility for your health.  The nice thing is that there are significant tax benefits to doing this as well! 

I am a big advocate of the Health Savings Account (HSA) coupled with catastrophic medical insurance.  The HSA is great because it allows you to save pre-tax money into an interest bearing account and spend it tax-free on health expenses.  The best part is that what the IRS deems health expense truely includes health expenses (not just medical expenses like insurance does).  This means rather than fighting an insurance company to cover your midwife assisted homebirth, your accupuncture care, and your chiropractic care, YOU pay for it becasue YOU deem it necessary!  Imagine that!  Talk about freedom.  Also, all of that money you save up just keeps rolling over from year to year.  No need to frantically spend it at the end of each year.  When you retire, it becomes a retirement account!

Accidents happen, no doubt, thats why coupling this HSA account with a qualified high deductible catastrophic medical insurance is great.  When your body is broken into bits from a car crash, you can't be responsible for your health care.  You need to turn it over to an institution that knows what they're doing, knowing it won't bankrupt you.  Pay a couple hundred dollars a month towards the insurance, and the rest of the money you'd be putting toward premium, save in your HSA.  Spend it if you need it!  Save it if you don't.  Taking repsonsibility begins to spread through other areas of your life: what you eat, where you spend your free time, etc will come into alignment with your ideals.