My MS doctor said the most important words any doctor can and should say to a patient. “I will prescribe things based on how I know you as a patient, not based on a number.” He was referring to my age, which is 74. I have lived over forty years with MS. I asked the diagnosing doctor if there was anything I couldn’t or shouldn’t do. He told me to do whatever I could for as long as I could. Over the years, I transitioned from outdoor running to the treadmill, stair stepper, and the swimming pool to maintain my health and mobility. My MS doctor believes this “work” I have done to stay well has kept me out of a wheelchair. Because of me doing this “work,” if a drug for progressive or smoldering (which I prefer as it sounds alluring) MS is approved by the FDA as expected, he will prescribe it as he knows quality of life is essential to me. Which leads me to the purpose of this post.
As the debate about health care subsidies continues, I suggest it’s time to redirect the goals of medicine. Decades ago, Dr. Kenneth Cooper posited that it was easier to maintain health than regain it after it was compromised. Health maintenance is cheaper. A decades old study, done when Mrs. Clinton was advocating for affordable care, demonstrated that. Sadly, the profiteering business model of medicine seems disinclined to act accordingly. If a person is diabetic, is it not more cost effective to provide drugs, education, and rewards for health maintenance rather than treating heart disease, vascular disease, retinopathy related to diabetes. Isn’t pre-natal care cheaper than intervening for a woman who has had no prenatal care and shows up at the ER in crisis? Isn’t it cheaper to subsidize health maintenance versus acute tertiary intervention? Doesn’t it make sense, not cents, to make drugs affordable so everyone can maintain their quality of life? When I retired, after forty years as a bedside nurse, I found my MS drug unaffordable, especially when financial advisors emphasized “Plan to make your money last.” Did retirement negate the importance of my quality of life? We live surrounded by wealth and abundance. Isn’t this country wealthy enough to cover the health maintenance, the quality of life of every person living in it? May Congress see the light.
Leave a Reply