I am disappointed in a lot of things when it comes to American political debate. Regardless, as a healthcare provider who cares deeply about the sad state of the overall health of our nation, I am baffled by the lack of any significant discourse on the subject by our presidential candidates. From the polls I’ve seen, the issue is second to the economy across the nation in its importance. Yet, little air time is given to this vital component of our way of life and well being.

What does this mean? I fear that there is so much money invested into maintaining the status quo, that neither candidate feels any reason to poke the “bear”. The cynical view would be that they are basically paid off to leave well enough alone by the corporations that are profiting from our national mediocrity.

And they mock our intelligence. They will talk about abortion, but not the socioeconomic and health access factors that lead to unwanted pregnancies. They’ll mention high drug prices, but ignore the medical industrial complex that creates drugs purely for profit as opposed to saving lives and improving our management of complex disease. No one actually proposes a policy that would cause systemic change for the good in the system. Courage is lacking. This is so frustrating.

But I have hope that at the local level in our counties and states, thoughtful and good people would prevail to influence and move our system in the right direction. I plan to review the candidates locally and see what they are saying about our health. Maybe if all of us take a thoughtful look at health policy ideas locally, we can start a wave of change.

At the national level, the opiate crisis didn’t push us. The COVID pandemic didn’t move us. Our continuously dropping lifespan is just ignored. What will it take to awaken us as a nation to our own health?

Just my thoughts for the evening. Good night…