Focusing on what matters

Difficult the times may be, it becomes even more challenging resolving issues that matter most if focus is allowed to run out of the floodgates of thoughtful review. As it is, we all must focus on how to skin the beast of insolvency so we move forward with a sense of certainty and purpose.
For instance, most of us aren’t aware that healthcare is the most expensive ticket item in any government’s budget. We take it for granted like some flyby cotton ball we dust off our shirt. Nah! It takes more than the casual attitude of mañana.

It definitely calls for planning the entire nine yards so we have a set of plans to follow and refine as we move forward. Without it, brace for more failure ahead; but then it’s about the health of our people throughout the CNMI. You can’t surrender to mediocrity nor leave things to chance, especially on matters pertaining to healthcare.

Funding healthcare

Some have raised the idea of distributing interest earned on funds invested by the Marianas Public Land Trust to the indigenous people. It’s a salivating though shallow suggestion that would gross about $38 per family here. Let’s explore how then could the $2.5 million in interest earned help all indigenous people.

The Commonwealth Health Center is in need of fresh budgetary infusion to craft a plan that ensures healthcare delivery to the people of these islands. The cost of operations is huge. The greater hardship is when our people must pay hospital fees that are basically beyond their reach. This was forced upon the CNMI by Obamacare.

It’s bad enough that retirees have seen their pension cut by 25 percent while health premiums have gone up by 40 percent, discounting spikes in deductibles and medication. Outside, the same folks must weather the high cost of power bills and recent increase in the price of basic food commodities. Wages and salaries have been stagnant for over a decade.

Now, when we talk of cost you will find at the other end of the stick what’s known as the humanity of the issue. It’s people standing at the other side quizzing the hardship of securing healthcare given their inability to pay. It’s beyond the reach of most folks here. Sure, healthcare would not be denied but there’s fear and humiliation established in their mind that it’s better to stay home.

For the sake of the health of our people, it’s best that the $2.5 million in interest earned on funds invested by MPLT is funneled to CHCC for the next 10 years. That it entails helping the indigenous people via their own funds, CHCC must not be required to pay it back.

I know the board of CHCC who are highly respected members of this community are equally wary of their fiduciary duties. Furthermore, they’d be pushing policies that would eventually ensure a healthier populace down the stretch.

At day’s end, funneling the $2.5 million to CHCC is basically an investment in the health of our people. This is how this should be perceived or bringing into the equation the humanity aspect of healthcare. Let’s explore it for it is a far better alternative when we invest in the health of our people. Si Yuus Maase!

Healthy spin-offs

When we help our people with the cost of healthcare, we would basically be returning over 65 percent of their money back into family pocketbooks. It would instantly allow recovery of some direly needed funds to boost the buying power of families throughout the villages.

I use myself as an example in what Obamacare has done to my rather simple life. In fact, it has complicated everything from dealing with power bills, health insurance, deductibles, medication, real estate loan, auto insurance, and the cost of basic goods. I am sure CHCC could device a mechanism how the $2.5 million could cover increases inflicted against our people under a failed national health policy.

A step in this direction ought to ease the hardship everywhere on these isles. It’s time to make useful spending of indigenous funds in an area that would ease both the troubled family pocketbooks and the need of CHCC to spread the $2.5 million into making greater improvements on healthcare delivery. Guess what? We owe it to ourselves, right? It would ease a costly family expense most could ill afford. Let’s do it!

Health begins with self

Often, personal health issues elude us primarily because we shove it aside as though it doesn’t matter. It reminds me of a survey taken in the ’80s among families who were asked what on the list of obligations would they pay first.

Cable TV came in No. 1 with flying colors. Health cost ranked below 12. And, sadly, about the only time it matters to us is when catastrophic illness hits a member of the family. Nah! This doesn’t have to be the case.

Your health and that of family members is all in the palm of your hands. You need to proactively promote and practice healthy habits from food to thrice weekly brisk walking. Turn it into a fun family thing where you enlist everybody’s participation.

As much as I hate broccoli and celery, I have developed a taste for it, including drinking graded turmeric in slightly warm water for health reasons. Everything that I needed to do I do it myself just to be able to move about. It’s good for your physical being.

The important thing to remember is that health begins with the self. Do it like family prayers. Do it today with your family proactively participating. The benefits are significant for each member who shakes a leg.