The age of the full-coverage mentality in health care is long gone. Our social system assigns a sovereignty to patients – that of taking more personal responsibility for maintaining their health. Changes over time, such as co-payments for health care services, also make preventive care an economic necessity for the patient. The development of many diseases of civilization depends to a large extent on the behavior of the individual. Contradictory to this is the practice, still sometimes common today, of a patient turning in his or her health problems to the doctor, so to speak – in other words, making the doctor responsible for solving his or her problems.
Responsibility for one’s own health
This attitude is not only unhealthy – it is fatal. After all, no doctor in the world can take responsibility for a patient’s lifestyle, and thus for his or her health. This responsibility has always rested with each individual, but only became quite obvious with health care reform. An unhealthy lifestyle, risky living or excessive stress at work or in everyday life have their health price, which must be paid by everyone. But it is not only lifestyle that is being put to the test. Developing a feeling for one’s own body, taking advantage of preventive checkups and taking adequate measures in the event of health problems – this is also required. However, personal responsibility also offers a great opportunity. For example, if diseases are recognized and treated more quickly, patients can also be saved from the dire fate of chronicity, or they can be prevented from really breaking out in the first place.
First check, then change
- How important is my health to me? How carefully do I treat myself?
- What is my lifestyle, how much physical activity I do?
- What is my diet?
- How important is a healthy lifestyle to me?
- What life goals I have and what limitations I accept?
- How health-conscious I live?
- How much am I willing to invest to change unfavorable lifestyles? Say: How much am I actually worth to myself?
Who regularly exercise, eat right and consciously relax, maintains a healthy lifestyle – he pays attention to his health. Who motivates himself and his children to a healthy attitude to life and lives according to it, shows himself responsible to take a lifetime of precautions for health.
How can changes be brought about?
True: the lack of personal responsibility today is a health policy problem. But it is also true: people need competent support to learn new behaviors and implement them permanently:
- Better information opportunities
- New approaches to education, prevention and therapy.
- A supplementary insurance to the GKV for health problems. In the offers there are great differences, so do not just look at the contribution, but inform about the benefits.
- Training measures for patients with chronic diseases. Special requirements exist here for the quality of these training courses.
A look into the future
People today are much more confronted with changes in their circumstances and thus necessary new beginnings than in the past. It is therefore important to look ahead. Not to lament what was, but to take the opportunity now to choose the right solution to the problem, namely to live more independently. A good example of this is diabetes. In the past, the opinion was that diabetes had to be managed according to strictly regulated rules. Today it is different, the patient should “manage” his disease himself in consultation with the doctor. But this does not mean the end of all reforms. Another probable scenario is that people who become ill as a result of their lifestyle, for example smokers or people who engage in risky sports, could in future have to pay the costs of self-inflicted illnesses or accidents themselves, so that they are no longer a burden on the insurance community. Conversely, in the future, much more self-responsible lifestyle will be rewarded. For this reason, it already makes sense today to check one’s lifestyle for possible risks and to assume more personal responsibility. One way or another, we will have no other choice!