Tag: individual

A New Healthcare Model?

submitted by jwithrow.caduceus-30591_640

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
A New Healthcare Model?

November 5, 2014
Hot Springs, VA

The S&P opened higher at $2,019 this morning, gold has been hammered down to $1,143, oil is hanging around $77, bitcoin is up to $341, and the 10-year Treasury rate is coming in at 2.36% today.

Gold continues its decline despite this philosopher’s staunch support. Nothing has changed with gold’s fundamental role within the financial system; gold’s price decline is directly due to the U.S. dollar temporarily rising in strength. In fact, thinking of gold in terms of its dollar price tends to be misleading – the dollar fluctuates up and down depending on which way the breeze is blowing while the yellow metal continues to plug steadily along much like the fabled tortoise against the hare. Slow and steady wins the race.

Last week I shared with you wife Rachel and my childbirth experience. The focus of my previous entry was on the actual birth experience itself and I described the fantastic healthcare service we received from our midwife and doula.

What I failed to emphasize was that our healthcare team provided so much more value than simply helping us through the birth process. They provided sound counseling, education, support, and wellness monitoring throughout the entire nine month period leading up to the birth. They offer these same comprehensive services for an entire six week period post-birth as well. Additionally, our midwife has been a reliable resource for us at all hours of the day – wife Rachel has sent her many questions via text message both before and after birth to which she received a prompt answer. Further, our midwife has offered to answer any questions we may have at any time going forward, even beyond the six weeks of post-partum services we paid for.

And speaking of payment – we paid for these services in cash without having to deal with any insurance companies. The entire experience harkens me back to a by-gone era of relative freedom in which small-town family doctors made house calls and actually cared more about their patients than their pharmaceutical sales rep.

What seems to be forgotten is that health insurance was designed to mitigate major catastrophes; it was not designed to pay for every dime of medical care and every new drug that rolls off the production line. Of course the entire health insurance industry has been corrupted, twisted, convoluted, and mangled into some form of a socio-fascist system that seeks to govern and dictate all manners of health care to individuals. Oh, and in exchange for such a tyrannical system individuals get to pay skyrocketing prices for their insurance policies. I read that employer open-enrollment periods were pushed back this year until after the midterm elections – presumably so voters wouldn’t know how high their premiums were planning to jump prior to the election.

The only possible result of the cartelization of the healthcare industry by the big-government/big-insurance/big-pharma alliance is a drastic reduction in the quality of care available and a drastic increase in the price of this care. I don’t know what the solution is for the poor Baby Boomer generation that will see their healthcare costs skyrocket at the exact point in time they need care most. I suppose they can continue trying to vote the system away and I wish them the best of luck in that endeavor. But I don’t think there are political solutions to political problems.

There may be a little more hope for the younger generations: they may be able to “opt” out of the system as it gets worse by avoiding insurance and paying cash for medical care. I suspect we will see certain doctors offer contractual services similar to how our midwife runs her practice. Instead of going through the insurance company, people could pay monthly installments to their doctor in exchange for personalized service. This service could include an open line for phone calls and text messages, house visits as needed, or maybe even after-hour office visits with no waiting room to sit in.

To my knowledge (and I am certainly no expert) there is nothing illegal about such a model at the current time – the Obamacare mandates apply specifically to insurance-related care. Of course this model would become obsolete if the gun-toting health enforcers start kicking in doors and hauling people off to jail for taking charge of their own healthcare. Until then, why not regain individual sovereignty and opt out of the system to the greatest extent possible?

More to come,

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Joe Withrow
Wayward Philosopher

For more of Joe’s thoughts on the “Great Reset” and regaining individual sovereignty please read “The Individual is Rising” which is available at http://www.theindividualisrising.com/. The book is also available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions.

Avoiding the Identity Trap

submitted by jwithrow.Identity Trap

The identity trap is the belief that you need to conform to what others think that you should be. It is when you feel the need to speak or act a certain way because other people think that you should speak or act that way. It is when you participate in an event or join an organization because others expect you to do so.

While these other people who expect you to conform to certain expectations are typically well-intentioned, you are doing yourself a disservice if you allow yourself to be pressured into the identity trap. Your life will not be harmonious if you are not true to your own inner self.

People, often subconsciously, do not see others as individuals but rather they see others as members of a particular group. They then assume that the other person holds all of the associated group’s beliefs and traits and thus they expect the other person to speak and act accordingly. But everyone is a unique individual and groups are comprised of individuals.

Individuals have a responsibility to themselves to do what they think is right at all times. Individuals have a responsibility to stay true to their beliefs and principles. Individuals do not have a responsibility to put on a façade because other people expect them to be something other than themselves. Falling into and remaining stuck in the identity trap is an impediment to your personal freedom. You can never be free if you must pretend to be something that you are not.

Harry Browne, in How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World, laid out four specific principles to recognize in order to avoid the identity trap. They are as follows:

1. You are a unique individual — different from all other human beings. No one else has the exact same nature that you have; no one else reacts to things in exactly the way you do. No one else sees the world exactly as you do. No one can dictate what your identity should be; you are the best qualified person to discover what it is.

2. Each individual is acting from his own knowledge in ways he believes will bring him happiness. He acts to produce the consequences he thinks will make him feel better.

3. You have to treat things and people in accordance with their own identities in order to get what you want from them. You don’t expect a stone to be a fish. And it’s just as unrealistic to expect one person to act as someone else does. You don’t control the identities of people, but you can control how you deal with them.

4. You view the world subjectively — colored by your own experience, interpretation, and limits of perception. It isn’t essential that you know the final truth about everything in the world; and you don’t have the resources to discover it.

Avoid the identity trap and realize your true individual potential.