This is absolutely brilliant!!! Thanks!!

The one phrase that continues to strike me as the bottom line problem with our health care system is "I have to work."

I have to work... so I need some kind of medicine that will make me feel better real fast, and I can swallow it with a glass of water twice a day, because I can't even remember to take my pills during lunch.

I have to work... so please give my children Antibiotics for their sniffles. The daycare and school won't let my children in there if they are contagious, and if I take off more than a day, I could get fired.

I have to work... so I can't afford to stay home and get myself well "naturally."

I have to work... it is CRAZY getting three kids off to school and myself ready for work in the morning, so I can't work out. Then I get off work, pick up the kids from day care, come home, make dinner, eat and clean up, help the kids with homework, bathe the little ones, throw some clothes in the washer, get lunches ready for tomorrow, and clean the house at night. I have NO energy to work out, and I'm too tired to cook a nutritious meal every night. I don't have time to plan meals, so all we do is eat boxed frozen pizza, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, and fish sticks, or we run by McDonald's on our way home from Little League practice at 8 PM three nights a week. My husband falls asleep in front of ESPN every night, so he's no help, and if I thought I could afford it, we'd get a divorce. My nerves are fried, my PMS is a mess, I live on coffee and Pop Tarts, I'm 40 pounds overweight, I pay the bills- if we have the money, my doctor says my cholesterol is too high, I've tried and failed at every diet out there, I feel horrible, and I'm just looking for something to give me more energy.

So when most people talk about "healthcare reform," they are talking about "sick" care reform. They just want something quick and easy to make them well enough to keep their jobs.

The first thing I would do is reduce the workday hours from 8-5 to 9-5. Yes, I understand MANY people are working 12 and 14 hour days now. That's insane. People are going to die of stress-related heart attacks right and left. One of my sons works 12 hour shifts in the military, another just called me to make Labor Day plans and says he's working 7 day weeks now and Labor Day will likely be his only day off for several months. My son-in-law is working 14 hour days right now. Barring my libertarian leaning political views, if I was Queen of the Forest, I would mandate that all workdays were 9-5, or I would tell corporations that their employees could not work more than 8 hours in a 24 hour period.

I think this would cause mass deflation, but I don't think this is a bad thing right now.

I would do a mass media blitz for years on the benefits of 8 hours sleep. I would have the hottest stars extol the virtues of going to bed at 10- or even 9 PM (!) and get pop song writers to write lyrics about going to bed early so the teens would do it.

If I was a business owner, I would offer "major medical" insurance for things like trauma, cancer, etc, set the charges at something ridiculous like 10% of your annual gross income, but offer "good patient" discounts just like car insurance companies offer "good driver" discounts. I think a gym membership should be deducted from the cost of health insurance. I think an annual physical should be required, where your family practitioner runs a complete battery on you, and you get a whopper of a discount on your medical insurance for low cholesterol numbers, non-smoking and drinking, a low BMI, and low blood pressure and heart rate.

I think routine doctor visits should be paid with cash out of pocket, and I think doctors should charge on a sliding scale based on a patient's income and family size.

I think medical insurance should be an opt-in program, and not required. But, I do think that charity organizations should be set up as 501-3Cs to pay for indigent care, including foreigners who are here as our guests.

I think more alternatives to hospital care should be available and made a higher profile. I am thinking specifically about home births and birthing centers. A home birth requires maybe $200 in supplies plus whatever the midwife charges. A hospital birth without complications costs almost $20K now, and heaven help the parents whose baby has complications at birth.

Our grocery stores can be local education centers for learning about healthy eating. Who hasn't been to a store where there is a demo lady at the end of an aisle? My grocery store is awesome in that it offers cooking classes, wine tasting parties, and holiday food tasting events. Why not a food-as-medicine class? It amazes me that so many people in the US (well, my hometown, anyway) don't know what constitutes a "healthy" diet. I'm not even talking about raw veganism. That would be WAY too radical for this crowd. I talking about something like Bob Greene's Best Life Diet or Tosca Reno's Eat Clean Diet. Dr. Schulze would throw these diet books across the room, because they would NEVER heal serious diseases. But I'd like to see people get to even there instead of white bread, bologna, and Cheetos followed by a six-pack of Coke.

I think the "snack tax" is a great idea. And I'm a former Republican!

I'd encourage real estate developers to create Garden Villages of small, cute, comfortable homes in subdivisions. These suburbs would be different in that the homeowners would sign a contract at the time of purchase agreeing to produce an edible landscape or garden that would be pleasant to the eye and soul. There would be a massive campaign to own backyard homesteads, cutting gardens and herb beds. Each community would have a Master Gardener assigned to them as well as a Master Herbalist, who would offer free classes on composting, vermiculture, propigation, heirloom roses, tincturing, etc. There would be a community center in the middle of the village for classes, concerts, theater productions, dances, art shows, poetry festivals. There would be a swimming pool, tennis courts, a track, a playground area, and a doggie park. Perhaps the community center would also serve as a park n ride pick up place for those who needed to commute into the city to work.

These are simply a few ideas I've thought about, and aren't meant to be a springboard for debate.

Wings