A lot of the other priorities in life fall apart if you don’t have your health. That’s why staying safe and healthy is such a top priority. But one question that you may not have asked yourself recently is – who exactly is in charge of my health? And though that may seem like an odd question at face value, thinking through the answers may give you some points to ponder.
Obviously to a degree, you are in charge of your health. But beyond that, there are the executive directors of healthcare companies, your government, and pharmaceutical companies. All of them have some say in the overall puzzle of how healthy you can be as an individual.
You Are!
If you follow nutrition and exercise guidelines, you’re doing a lot to be the healthiest person that you can. You avoid fad diets. You avoid extreme exercise regimens. You find a good balance in your life between appreciating what you have and moving toward what you want regarding health. And you figure out how to maintain habits so that keeping a healthy lifestyle is part of the natural order of your everyday activities.
Executive Directors of Healthcare Companies
But think for a second what happens when you run into a health issue. What do you do? You probably go to the doctor or go to some other healthcare professional. And whoever you talk to, that person has a boss way up the chain of command that is the executive director of a healthcare company. And that person yields a tremendous amount of power as to what kind of services you can get, and how much they cost. That executive director figures out how much money is going to research, and how much money is going to advertising. Believe it or not, when a company hires a healthcare executive, they are hiring a person who is ultimately in charge of your health.
Your Government
If you split people into two categories, there are those who trust the government and those who don’t. And this split will often depend on how they view the government’s guidelines on health. Do people trust the government with scientific studies that suggest healthy lifestyles? Or do people trust their own anecdotal considerations? It’s an intriguing set of questions when you’re trying to figure out who was responsible for your overall health.
Pharmaceutical Companies
And for better or worse, the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies have quite a bit of control over your health. They do the research to find new medicines. They decide how to price certain drugs. They have a large say in what your insurance pays for. So, regardless of how healthy you try to keep yourself, when you run into some instance where you have to purchase medication, you run straight into the matter of how pharmaceutical companies manage their businesses.
