In light of the legislation being debated on Capitol Hill, I am of the belief that healthcare reform is like a marathon, and too many Americans are making it out to be a 1600 meter dash.
About three years ago I ran my first marathon in Las Vegas, and I’ll be honest, it sucked. I trained completely wrong, my nutrition was not where it needed to be, and my legs were about to fall off around mile 21. I bolted out of the start line like a bat out of hell, but 20 miles later I must have looked like a wounded one-legged wallaby hobbling pitifully towards the finish line at the Mandalay Bay.
Yeah, healthcare reform is kind of like that. 
It isn’t going to happen overnight. It’s going to be a long and arduous process of trying new policies, refurbishing old ones, and somewhere in between, making a lot of people uncomfortable with the prospect of change. And let’s not kid ourselves, twenty six miles of running can get uncomfortable, really uncomfortable.
One runner I saw defecated in his shorts around mile 17. He didn’t
even skip a beat, he just sauntered along with everyone else towards the finish line.
But this is how progress is attained, one step after another, over and over, clean shorts or not.
The best healthcare systems in the world are constantly evolving; they’re always trying new and innovative ways to improve access to and quality of healthcare.
Now it’s our turn to try something new, and no, we probably won’t get it right the first time. In fact we might even have to crap in our running shorts once or twice before we get to where we want to go.
But just like the man at mile 17 we’re going to trot along towards the finish until we reach a point where medical costs are under control and affordable high quality care is accessible to all Americans.
It’s likely we won’t ever reach a point where everyone is happy with the way things are in healthcare. But there is an undeniable need for change, and this ashamedly belated realization is in itself a catalyst for what needs to be done.
Healthcare reform is a marathon, not a sprint, people. The sooner we realize this the sooner we can have realistic expectations about how things are going to change these upcoming years.
What has happened these past months is that the seeds of beneficent change have been planted and the pistol at the start of the marathon has shot off. Our healthcare system has just crossed the first mile marker, and we undoubtedly have a long way to go.
So have patience with reform and fight our seemingly innate American need for instant gratification: it took us decades to get into this mess and it will take a while for us to dig ourselves out of it.
Afterall, as Lao-Tzu once famously said, the journey of a thousand
miles begins with the first step.
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