On Wednesday mornings, I meet with a group of other small business owners for the purpose of networking and providing each other with client referrals. During the meeting, each member of the group will take a minute to share his or her specific specialty and expertise with the rest of the group. Many of the services are based on protection of a person's assets or material properties by way of financial planning, insurance or legal representation. For example, we have a member who provides insurance for home and auto and one who provides life, disability and long term care insurance. We have a financial advisor who helps people plan for their retirement and an attorney who, among other things, helps people plan for their death.
It is my sincere belief that all of these services are extremely important for the protection of a person's assets and the “material” quality of life to which s/he is accustomed. I also know, based on my relationship with these members, that all of the service providers are quality people who genuinely care about their customers' best interests. Interestingly enough, even though I support their cause, I usually tend to feel like the odd man out.
A couple of weeks ago the pension plan consultant said something to the effect of “Dr. Gene will help you live a longer life and I'll help you be prepared to afford it.” I quickly corrected him by saying that my interest was no so much in the length of someone's life but rather in the quality of one's life experiences before death. The reality of course is that nobody's getting out of this life alive. Besides that, death is not necessarily a pathological event — it's a part of life — and wellness care is not about avoiding death, it's about getting the most out of life until you die.
As I'm listening to each of the members state their case for the importance of insuring one's assets and one's “health,” I secretly wonder to myself; does anyone think about insuring the quality of their life right now, not to mention the effects on their health and quality of life for the future? While I wouldn't argue the need to have health or life insurance or to insure one's assets, I would like to point out that health insurance has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with a person's health. The same would hold true for life insurance. It would be much more accurate to call them disease and death insurance because if you have a disease, or you die, the insurance company will pay.
Most people spend a major part of their adult life completely consumed with and worried about the financial aspects of their future, and then, by the time they get there, their whole life has passed them by and their health has suffered so much they can't even get to truly enjoy the experience of life. Pondering this paradox, I pose this question: What are you doing to insure the quality of your life right now and in your future? Make no mistake about it, the decisions and lifestyle choices you are currently making will, without a doubt, determine what your future health will be like.
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