25.5.2010
That is a good question. From the time I can remember, the age old adage of ‘Health is Wealth’ had been ingrained in our impressionable minds to be the ultimate truth. Is it really the elusive truth that everyone is looking for?
In the pre-industrial era when most people led simple lives toiling on the wonders provided by nature, e.g. farming, hunting or any work which involve indentured labourers or bondage slavery. Here, a healthy fit body will ensure ability to endure the hardship of calamities of nature to bring home the bacon! An unhealthy invalid or an aging senile individual will be a burden to family and society unless a social safety net is in place.
If you were the servant of the palace or a sorcerer in the dawn of human civilization, (as if we are more civilised now), health is of paramount importance for survival. Is this adage still of relevance at this present date and time?
Let me look at how health brings wealth to an individual. For a cynical person like me, I would look at first at how many caregivers in the healthcare services (e.g. doctors and nurses) who generate wealth from other people’s ill-health. They are not ill-gotten gains, mind you. Then there are the giants in the healthcare industries like the HMO’s and the insurance companies who managed to build a conglomerate from people’s sickness. In fact, I have seen so many friends whose family and generations have been elevated the rung of ladder of strata of society via acquiring medical studies (either via pure hard work or via the short cut). In fact, medical studies have gone so cheap. Advertisements are often seen in the local dailies showing SPM as requirement for entry to some of these so called Government-approved medical institutions.
It is no secret that the cost of healthcare all over the world has leapt by bounds over the years. It will literally cost a leg or an arm to afford cutting edge medical care in a private hospital anywhere in the world. So, to acquire good health, one has to have some wealth and be willing to part with it. I remember a relative of mine, who during a routine screening procedure, who was told to have a small benign looking renal cyst. It kept on reappearing on repeated subsequent screening. Being not satisfied with reassurances by his doctors, he flew down to Singapore for more invasive diagnostic procedures. To cut the story short, he underwent a nephrectomy after biopsies showed slow growing renal cell carcinoma. Here, it is apparent that this individual acquired good bill of health after paying a hefty bill of wealth! Of course critics will say that it is a slow growing tumour anyway which would have been picked up by subsequent regular screenings. To the patient, however, his doctors in Malaysia have failed him and he will always be wary of their treatment modalities.
Many diseases that use to plague mankind (e.g. small pox and poliomyelitis to a certain extent) have been literally wiped out from the surface of earth, save some kept in the laboratories (which may be used as a biological weapon when the time is ripe). Beri-beri which used to plague Malayan bonded labourers in the middle of the 20th century is unheard of in modern Malaysia. All these happened with improvement of economic climate and affordability of vaccines and proper balanced nutrition. On the other hand, wealth has brought with it some life style related diseases as well – obesity, diabetes, hypertension, coronary events, etc. It looks like here wealth has brought in some health issues as well.
Fearing for their health, wealth affluent societies no longer believe in curative medicine but rather concentrate on preventive medicine. This has been instrumental in mushrooming of numerous health sanctuaries. Here, absolutely normal individuals of various ages are subjected to various tests just to find a result which would deviate from norm so that more tests can be done, all in the pretext of finding sickness in a health person. Business is generated – healthcare providers are happy- they got a job; insurance companies are happy – they have got low risk individuals tied down with their policies and are laughing all the way to the bank; the ‘patients’ are happy – they have taken care of their health so that they can continue acquiring wealth! And continue their way of life, for good or bad...
Now which side are you on?
In the pre-industrial era when most people led simple lives toiling on the wonders provided by nature, e.g. farming, hunting or any work which involve indentured labourers or bondage slavery. Here, a healthy fit body will ensure ability to endure the hardship of calamities of nature to bring home the bacon! An unhealthy invalid or an aging senile individual will be a burden to family and society unless a social safety net is in place.
If you were the servant of the palace or a sorcerer in the dawn of human civilization, (as if we are more civilised now), health is of paramount importance for survival. Is this adage still of relevance at this present date and time?
Let me look at how health brings wealth to an individual. For a cynical person like me, I would look at first at how many caregivers in the healthcare services (e.g. doctors and nurses) who generate wealth from other people’s ill-health. They are not ill-gotten gains, mind you. Then there are the giants in the healthcare industries like the HMO’s and the insurance companies who managed to build a conglomerate from people’s sickness. In fact, I have seen so many friends whose family and generations have been elevated the rung of ladder of strata of society via acquiring medical studies (either via pure hard work or via the short cut). In fact, medical studies have gone so cheap. Advertisements are often seen in the local dailies showing SPM as requirement for entry to some of these so called Government-approved medical institutions.
It is no secret that the cost of healthcare all over the world has leapt by bounds over the years. It will literally cost a leg or an arm to afford cutting edge medical care in a private hospital anywhere in the world. So, to acquire good health, one has to have some wealth and be willing to part with it. I remember a relative of mine, who during a routine screening procedure, who was told to have a small benign looking renal cyst. It kept on reappearing on repeated subsequent screening. Being not satisfied with reassurances by his doctors, he flew down to Singapore for more invasive diagnostic procedures. To cut the story short, he underwent a nephrectomy after biopsies showed slow growing renal cell carcinoma. Here, it is apparent that this individual acquired good bill of health after paying a hefty bill of wealth! Of course critics will say that it is a slow growing tumour anyway which would have been picked up by subsequent regular screenings. To the patient, however, his doctors in Malaysia have failed him and he will always be wary of their treatment modalities.
Many diseases that use to plague mankind (e.g. small pox and poliomyelitis to a certain extent) have been literally wiped out from the surface of earth, save some kept in the laboratories (which may be used as a biological weapon when the time is ripe). Beri-beri which used to plague Malayan bonded labourers in the middle of the 20th century is unheard of in modern Malaysia. All these happened with improvement of economic climate and affordability of vaccines and proper balanced nutrition. On the other hand, wealth has brought with it some life style related diseases as well – obesity, diabetes, hypertension, coronary events, etc. It looks like here wealth has brought in some health issues as well.
Fearing for their health, wealth affluent societies no longer believe in curative medicine but rather concentrate on preventive medicine. This has been instrumental in mushrooming of numerous health sanctuaries. Here, absolutely normal individuals of various ages are subjected to various tests just to find a result which would deviate from norm so that more tests can be done, all in the pretext of finding sickness in a health person. Business is generated – healthcare providers are happy- they got a job; insurance companies are happy – they have got low risk individuals tied down with their policies and are laughing all the way to the bank; the ‘patients’ are happy – they have taken care of their health so that they can continue acquiring wealth! And continue their way of life, for good or bad...
Now which side are you on?
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