A Billion Dollars
With all the talk of stimulus plans for the economy, and of universal health coverage in this United States of America, I wonder why we don’t remember the lesson of the truck. I’ve heard this story from a number of self-help teachers. The truck was a semi-trailer filled tall with some cargo. Going under an overpass, the cargo was so high that truck got stuck. It was wedged under the bridge. With a gaggle of men wondering how to untie and unload the vast cargo, it was suggested to take some air out of the tires. That would create enough space to get the vehicle moving forward again. What a simple solution.
Natural Medicine Saves Money
Instead of continuing to pile our health care cargo high with evermore expensive procedures, why not work on the more basic pieces first? Then we won’t have to expend as much. In other words, learning how to take care of ourselves with natural movement methods is a medicine almost free. As a medicine, gentle movement brings many cures. Not everything can be addressed with easy movements, deepening breaths, and mind-quietening procedures. But much can.
Healing Disease
In an article in the Wall Street Journal by four famous healers (Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil, Dean Ornish, and Rustum Roy) they claim that 2.1 trillion dollars was spend on healthcare in the previous year. But most of it wasn’t health care. It was disease care, money spent after the fact on preventable diseases.
Low-Cost Wellness
The Wall Street Journal article goes on to extol the powers of “simple, low-tech, and low-cost interventions” in health care. If there is something simpler, lower-tech, and lower-cost than basic Qigong, I would like to know about it.
High Concept Health
Here is an idea. Instead of spending a trillion dollars on medical care, why not allocate a billion dollars to promulgating natural principles of health. (That still leaves a trillion dollars for the doctors, drug, companies, machine-builders, and hospitals.) Millions of people are already taking classes in Yoga, Taiji (tai chi), Qigong (chi kung), pilates and other body-centered health-empowerement methods. How about a couple of hundred of million of people. We as a nation would save trillions of dollars. Each person could save thousands; and more importantly, we could prevent or subdue much suffering.