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> I think maybe easier access to healthcare, mental and physical, could help? I agree with almost everything else you have said. But this line has got to go fr
by simonsarris 8y ago
> I think maybe easier access to healthcare, mental and physical, could help?
I agree with almost everything else you have said. But this line has got to go from the most-common-reply-to-this-problem.
I think it's a huge canard, probably the biggest political canard in existence today, and there are far bigger problems that this presumption (that healthcare is what's needed) masks.
Just as you say, I think there are deep-seated problems with how we structure our society/lives/even just getting about, how we eat, how we are able to (or not) meet new people and create chance encounters, that do not happen for the vast majority of people. Problems that are new in the post 1800's world and seem to only be getting worse.
I do not think the solution is contained anywhere near "more healthcare." Our use in the US already tremendous, more than most countries and most time periods ever in existence. I do not think the solution is "more mental healthcare", unless you mean actually creating and inhabiting communities again, instead of living from space bubble to space bubble. I do not think that's what people mean when they say mental healthcare. Usually they mean hire more therapists instead of create more places where it's easier to have friends meet and people congregate.
It doesn't even pass the sniff test. If the answer was really more healthcare: When has the US consumed more healthcare (mental or physical) than today? In fact if some amount of healthcare = dispensing pills, it seems like this report proves that too much healthcare is one of the biggest contributors to this mortality problem.
I really wish people would stop repeating that statement and start focusing more on what else has gone wrong. I think you are on to something important with the rest of your post, but its too easy for people to drown it out with demanding that "healthcare" do something. I think it's a shame.