What is ideal healthcare?

I recall once, as a witness in court, I was asked during cross examination to pick an answer from a list of choices when the question really had no answer.

Perhaps it is for the same reason why it is so difficult to choose an ideal health care system that might seem fair to all. “The greatest and most important problems of life are all in a certain sense insoluble… they cannot be solved but only outgrown” — Carl Jung.

If wellness is everyone’s interest, then perhaps it is worthwhile to understand what wellness is. 

I know I will die. I also know I won’t be taking anything with me when I do. I don’t know how or when. Until then, my body will continue to be an accumulation of all that I eat; my mind, everything I learn. Like a vehicle, if given all the “non-discretionary substrates” and “used appropriately”, my body will still fail but less likely prematurely. My moment by moment experience is determined solely by the object of my attention. So if I have the “power to choose, moment by moment, the object of my attention” from a “sufficient numbers of perspectives”, I can choose a blissful existence. (or whatever manner of existence of my choosing).

To this mind, the important wellness perspectives are; please add your perspectives!

1. Knowing what are the “non-discretionary substrates” to feed the body. (Eg. 400 grams of non-starchy vegetables and fruits per day — WHO)
2. Knowing how to “use the body appropriately”. (Eg. Understand that much of pain is the way the body speaks to the mind; not to be neglected or blocked; but to be recognized as an indispensable element of wellness and convalescence.
3. Developing the ability to choose, moment by moment, the object of my attention. (Eg. Understand that much of mental suffering is the consequence of the inability to choose the object of attention and that mindfulness trainings of some variation may be potential solutions)
4. Accumulating “sufficient number of perspectives” to choose from. ( Eg. Facilitated by authentic conversations, group psychotherapy or Talking Circles — http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/aboriginal/strategygr05lancircle.pdf

And if wellness is everyone’s business; would it not be helpful to redefine “healthcare” to be inclusive of the education systems, media, governments and private corporations?

Then in a larger conversation circle, can we redesign a “cradle to grave” education system that facilitates the collective awareness of different wellness perspectives?

Can we incentivize media to promote wellness – in novel and entertaining ways?

Can we select leaders more aware of wellness perspectives; and capable of redirecting the attention of the populace from imprecise judgments, self-harming and myopic fixations to perspectives of wellness and sense of oneness?

Can we recreate an economy where private corporations were incentivized to market gratitude, generosity and self-empowerment; rather than cravings and addictions?

While as a physician I have seemingly endless opportunities to share my perspectives with people made attentive by their pain, sufferings and illness; I think the responsibility of sharing wellness perspectives does not belong to any single group of people but to anyone and everyone who is aware.