Aug 03, 2007
The Hardcare/Softcare Spectrum
All healthcare practices, techniques, treatments, devices, and medications can be placed on a spectrum ranging from softest to hardest. At the soft end of the spectrum we find such approaches as massage, herbalism, diet, yoga, and emotional counseling. At the hard end of the spectrum we find most surgeries, most prescription drugs, acute and traumatic injury care, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and extreme psychiatric practices, such as electroshock.
The basic premise of commonhealth is that to the extent that a community or nation has over-committed to hardcare approaches, its heathcare expenses rise precipitously, fewer community members have secure access to regular care, and overall outcomes — as measured in such areas as infant mortality, life expectancy, and iatrogenic illness — worsen.
Conversely, when we commit time, money, energy, and attention to softcare approaches, expenses fall, everybody has secure access to quality care, and medical outcomes improve.
While America’s healthcare crisis is in part due to its inane aversion to “socialized medicine,” even if we remove the insurance companies from the equation and adopt the single-payer system that works so well for other nations, many of our problems will remain. Indeed, the proponents of “anti-social medicine” may be proven right: there’s way too much hardcare in our current system to fund with a tax-based approach, so there would definitely be long waits and/or rationing for hardcare treatments.
Even as it shifts to a single-payer system, America must also undergo a total rethink of its medical practices. As we lessen our reliance on hardcare, and commit to a softcare lifestyle, we’ll all feel a whole lot better.
