The premiers are meeting today to talk about the new deal on health. In summary, the Feds will pay 6% for the next few years and then will restrict what they pay to GDP. What does this mean for you and for PEI?
It means that we go broke in 4 years time if we don't change. But it also means that if you choose to take charge of your own health - we may not. It will be up to us and not the Premier.
Here is why we are on track to go broke and here is what you can do to stop this.
PEI along with the other Atlantic provinces has terrible demographics. In 20 years time nearly half of PEI will be over 60! Right now the average man on PEI is disabled by chronic illness by 65 and lives for another 9.7 years.
This is the heart of your problem and PEI's. Our older population + the chronic disease epidemic = a massive increase in costs.
Already on PEI health care costs are rising not at 6% but at 11%. Growth of GDP might be 1-2% over the next few years - if we are lucky. So PEI is already out of sync. By the next election, healthcare costs will be 100% of our tax receipts.
The only money that PEI will have left in 2016 will be the Federal equalization payments. Ask how big will be the Fed's purse be in 2016?
What can we do?
We have to shift our focus to wellness. Not the health system shift its focus - but you and I. Enough of us have to change first.
It all starts with each of us alone. Do you want to be ill? For the chances are that you will be unless you act. 40% of women will get breast cancer. 30% of us will get type 2 diabetes. Do you think that this is OK or that you have no control over this?
Do you think that the healthcare system will be there to look after you in 10 years time? If you do ask how it can be. I cannot see how it can be. Look at Europe where in places like Greece the entire safety net is being unwound. Why would we avoid this?
This cannot start in government. It cannot because most of us still believe that "they" will save us. That "they" will find the money to pay for the treatment and that we need do nothing ourselves. The first premier to say that he was cutting health care will be chucked out. Our politicians are not stupid - WE are.
It is up to us.
Enough of us have to take charge to give the politicians a chance to do the right thing. It is when our friends and family see how well we are that they may have the courage to change to.
Here is a start where you can find the information that you need to take control yourself.
Michael Rose's 55 Theses - Where the world's leading scientist in the field of aging shows us how evolution has designed us to stay fit as we get older - provided we live the life we were designed to live.
The Missing Human Manual - Where I aggregate the wide field of science that is related to why we get ill and what to do to prevent and to retore
The Facebook Page - Taking Control of our Health - Where I aggregate the advice from the large community of people who are doing this now. Your AA site!
So what is your choice? Will you act to help your community and family - or do you choose to do nothing and so chose to harm them? That is the choice.
