MyTake February 10, 2009, 11:02PM EST

A Healthy America: Yes We Can

BusinessWeek reader Casey Quinlan wants Americans to rescue themselves from the broken medical system by looking after themselves

BusinessWeek.com reader Casey Quinlan, a former journalist, is writing a book, Cancer for Christmas, about her battle with breast cancer. Based in Richmond, Va., she started Mighty Casey Media in July 2006.

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We recently swore in a new President. One of the central planks in Barack Obama's platform was tackling the mess that is the medical care and medical insurance system in the U.S. Let's all weigh in on that work, and help get all of us moving toward better health, better medical care, and better ways to manage the costs of both.

I firmly believe that the rising tide of medical costs, in the U.S. and other developed nations, can be laid at the door of our own individual unwillingness to take charge of our health by cutting back on drive-thru nutrition and doing what our TVs tell us to do: "Eat this! Drink this! Who cares if it's loaded with sodium, saturated fat, and sugar? You deserve it!"

A consumer culture to the core, we usually eat this and drink that while sitting in our cars or beached on our sofas in front of the TV—which tells us about all the other stuff we're supposed to be eating, drinking, and buying. It doesn't help that the television also tells you to "ask your doctor" about everything from Cialis to drugs for schizophrenia.

Don't get me wrong. I love a good meal. I enjoy a nice glass of wine. I really like all my electronic toys. The key is understanding why you want something, and if you start with wanting to be healthy, that will inform your choices about what you'll let your TV tell you to do.

Get Worked Up

What risk factors do you have for cancer, heart disease, and other life-threatening diseases? As you get older, those risk factors gather more steam. Smoking, bad nutrition, a lack of exercise can all add to your ticket in the genetic lottery and wind up giving you some sort of unwanted prize. Knowledge is power, baby—denial just makes knowing more painful, because then the knowledge can come too late.

As far as ensuring—and insuring—our health goes, what we all can do, as a nation and as members of the human race, is start demanding more from medicine. Medical vendors—big pharma and medical equipmentmanufacturers—and the medical insurance industry have been driving the bus for a while now, and it looks like the wheels are coming off.

Doctors and hospitals are pursued relentlessly by drug companies and medical equipment manufacturers, with samples and blandishments of all kinds, all aimed at driving up the number of prescriptions for whatever this week's wonder drug might be, or diagnostic procedures of questionable value but high billable cost.

Paying the Piper

The health insurers are the brain-trust that gave us managed care, where unseen hands have the power to grant, or deny, medical treatment. All of those unseen hands are attached to humans who draw salaries, which I firmly believe add to the overall cost of both medical insurance premiums and medical care.

Access to medical care is a basic human right. However, medical care is not, nor can it be, free. Somebody pays, whether you pay 100% of your medical costs out of your own pocket, have great insurance, or are relying on Medicare or Medicaid. The challenge we face, as a nation and as a global community, is to figure out how to meet those costs.

Medicare is often used as an example of how a national single-payer plan would work. I'm afraid that might turn out to be a nightmare worse than the nightmare we're already having. I don't see how turning over the health care of an entire nation to a bureaucracy that's nearly Soviet in its size and unworkability is any kind of solution.

Meaningful Steps

I think we can point our collective fingers directly at ourselves—the American health care consumer—for the high cost of health care. Doctors, hospitals, and medical insurers have all played a part in the tragicomic opera that health care has become. The U.S. spends 16% of its national income on health care, yet still has a lower life expectancy than most developed countries.

How about as consumers, we start taking some steps on our own behalf? Each of us needs to take some kind of meaningful action to ensure our own health. Just because you can heat it up in the microwave in under five minutes doesn't mean you should eat it every day. Start reading labels, and if you can't say it, don't eat it. Stop smoking, start walking. Stop listening to your television when it tells you to buy stuff. Who's in control of your life: you, or Taco Bell?

Quinlan is a former journalist and 20-year veteran of U.S. television network news and sports. Based in Richmond, Virginia, she started Mighty Casey Media in July 2006 to advise companies on their media and communications strategies. She is also writing a book, Cancer for Christmas, about her battle with breast cancer.