Lynne, you are a peach. I love your compassion and your intellect and your gentleness; rarely combined in one person in such an apparently balanced way.

In recent research, I went way back to our earliest probable understanding of health. Basically, internal power. Medicine was the power of health, something that usually came from within. But, when things went wrong, then there were these medicine-wisdom people. The shamans.

Anyway, internal power, energy, is optimized in any biosystem when everyone is as healthy as possible. In any form of ecological system, it is always better if all subsystems are healthy and thriving, and it is always a warning sign when one portion of the system is compromised.

Species health is cooperatively optimized. If individuals have to compete for access to nutrients and maintenance resources, then this puts the entire species at unnecessary risk.

We need to do the best we can to take care of each other because we are all in this journey together. The idea that access to health services should be contingent on the individual's capacity to pay is morally anomalous, and dissonant with our entire permacultured history, not only as a species, but as a planet.

Gerald Dillenbeck, M. Div, MPA

--- On Wed, Jan 1, 2014, Lynne Monds wrote ---

On January 1, 2014 the United States entered into a tectonic cultural shift called healthcare reform.

In so doing, we took a massive step toward an alignment with the healthcare systems of every other industrial country in the world.

As a health insurance agent for the past seven years, I have been working to help my clients transition into the new system as seamlessly as possible, but many of them are not liking the change, as can be expected with a transformation so vast.

This cultural, economic, social and political transformation will eventually affect every American in ways both direct and indirect – and the questions surrounding healthcare reform touch upon many spiritual issues as well.

The Pope, for instance, speaks about caring for the poor. Does this involve giving the poor free healthcare?

One might say yes without question. Then, what about a poor person who smokes? To what extent does the Universe expect us to help carry the karmic burden of people who are in the process of dealing with the consequences of their lifestyle choices?

These are nuanced issues, and I would very much like to hear from the people who are here from countries that are already delivering universal healthcare to their citizens. What are some of the challenges that we American newbies can expect to face with our novel healthcare system?

And of course, I would like to hear as well about the experiences of my fellow Yanks, as we go bravely now into this new day.

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