Montrose County Health and Human Services

Delegating Away Your Health Care

The month of June, with its June weddings and June brides, is as good a time as any to reflect on the fact that we humans are indeed strange creatures. Certain celebrity weddings remind us that some brides spend more time choosing floral arrangements and gowns than they spend on getting to know the mate they have chosen for life. How many men choose a career based on what's available rather than on what they want to do, yet they will take hours and days or more agonizing over the right golf club or fishing tackle? And it is completely embarrassing as an American to realize that we felt as much passion and interest in choosing the new American Idol as we did in choosing the elected officials who run the government that belongs to we the people. One would almost have to conclude that we humans are uncomfortable with big decisions, but we thrive on decisions that don't matter a great deal in the grand scheme of things.

One of the decisions we've delegated to others for far too long is the decision about what kind of health care system we would like to see in this country. Six times in the twentieth century our elected officials tried and failed to reform health care. Each failure has taken us one step closer to a crisis of disastrous proportions in the health care system. This time around we should not trust others, especially others with vested interests that run counter to our own, to “fix” the health care system. If we want to see the pieces in place that will provide coverage for everyone, that will reduce the overall cost of health care, and that will do so without leaving so many of us staggering under a mound of medical debt, we need to take on that responsibility for ourselves.

That is exactly the approach being taken by an organization called Health Care for All Colorado (HCAC). HCAC is an organization composed of people with a real desire to see improvement in the way we deliver health care in this country, people from all walks of life and all occupational backgrounds. In March HCAC held Citizen Health Care hearings in Denver , giving everyone the chance to express in an open forum the concerns and problems they were having with our current health care system. The testimony revealed a great deal about what is wrong with our present system. After the testimony, there were a couple of panel discussions about the steps that could be taken to improve the current situation. Everyone who attended left the meeting feeling that steps could and would be taken to make health care truly available for all.

Soon we on the Western Slope will have our turn to have some input into the reforms that need to happen. All Colorado will be watching as we tackle the very different problems of delivering health care in a rural environment. Our Western Slope Health Care Hearings will be here in Montrose sometime in September. If you want your voice to be heard on a matter that truly will be a big decision, call us at Montrose County Health and Human Services (970-252-5000) and we will add your voice to the chorus calling for change.