Where did the doctors go?

I've lived in PA for nearly 10 years now. I've never experienced the amount of healthcare changes in such a short amount of time as I have here.  I've seen over a dozen well-respected and excellent holistic and non-holistic doctors leave the state and/or stop practicing medicine in that time and most of them, due to the malpractice laws and/or healthcare requirements. 

I know PA is not the only state affected.  I know my clients all over the US are also having challenges with finding the healthcare they need.  I also know that we are a country that has access to more information and new options in healing than nearly any place in the world and it saddens me when my colleagues and clients tell me that another practitioner has chosen to stop practicing due to regulations that limit their ability to do the work they do so well.

Recently, I found the following website that illustrates just how much the health care system in PA is affecting our doctors.  Here is a list they publish of the doctors who have been affected by this:

http://www.fightingdocs.com/main/disappearing_docs.html

One interesting things is that good physicians are actually moving to areas of the US where they can more easily practice.  For more information on this, please see the following link for articles:

http://www.fightingdocs.com/main/information/main.cgi

I don't have an answer here.  I wrote this more as an observation and to offer to clients who are having challenges finding the care you want and seeing your doctors quit their practice that you are not alone AND that there are people out there trying to change things. 

Finding Personal Empowerment

One thing that I've found in this is the opportunity for clients to find new ways to take care of themselves, realizing that they can take a part in taking care of their health.  One of my clients, after her doctor left, told me she "felt like for the first time I have the tools I need to make some changes without my doctor". 

So as we go through our lives, I wonder, what can we do each day to make our own lives healthier?  What can you do today?  Here are some thoughts on a few ideas.  Feel free to add to the list and if you want to e-mail me a list I'll add them on and lets see what we get for the new year:)

• Today I'm going to...

Eat my greens:)

Drink an extra glass of pure water.

Hug as many people as will let me.

Take 5 minutes to remember my blessings.

Eat something that nourishes me.

Send an e-mail to someone telling them how special they are to me.

Let someone off the hook without remorse recognizing we are all human.

Love someone.

Love myself.

Smile all day and make people smile as they wonder why...does it really matter why?

 

So what's on your list?

 

I wish you all a happy and healthy day.

Many Blessings,

Jenifer