Pretend you live in an alternate reality, like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign.
You’re about to set off on an adventure. It’s a dark time. The City Of The Morning is collapsing; her Guilds can no longer protect their members.
Kind of like now.
You’ve chosen to stay. Things aren’t awful, but they’re starting to go bad.
There’s time to prepare, before you and your friends are on your own.
How would you prep?
If this is a DnD campaign, you’d prepare to be attacked
You’d want to buff up your character stats. Whatever your strengths, you’d want to augment them with tools and spells to take advantage of them.
Because in DnD, things get interesting when the DM says, “Roll for initiative” right before the ambush.
Fighting and exploring are the meat and potatoes of a campaign, when the goal is to achieve fortune and glory.
But we’re not there yet
Unless things go round the bend to societal collapse, daily life won’t be full of fighting monsters and escaping dungeons.
This is America, not Argentina.
It’s going to be about food prices rising, social services going offline, corporate hiring freezes, and what I’m most familiar with, healthcare changes.
Namely, health insurance prices are going way up—more than doubling for many Americans—and services are getting suddenly more difficult to access.
How do you level up your armor and elfin scimitars against that?
This actually happens in games
A lot.
The first time you drop into a SHOP, the SHOPKEEPER shows you affordable boots and gloves, but also some amazing wares. Swords that will cut through the most powerful demons — but that cost more than you’d earn in a dozen play-throughs.
Or directions to meet with powerful allies who can’t be easily found.
Scarcity is common in DnD.
If the services you need are scarce, you
- Make your own way
- Find allies to introduce you
- Apply a cheat code
Not sure there’s a cheat code for healthcare
The closest might be “Get a job in the industry, where health insurance is one of the benefits.” This might be the only reliable cheat code: other employment may not offer affordable healthcare, as prices rise even for employers.
You may not be a doctor, but healthcare needs receptionists, janitors, accountants, statisticians, HR personnel, etc.
IF you can a) find a job that b) offers health insurance, consider the cheat code applied.
Making your own way is the most reliable strategy
In the game world, you start exploring, leveling up your possessions and skills, and eventually find the helpful wizard, the magic sword, or the stunning sniper rifle.
The cool stuff doesn’t come to you.
You go to it, getting worthier along the way.
And often when you get to it, you’ve leveled up so much you don’t actually need the upgrade. Your rifle already has super stabilization, the scope that can reveal the lunar surface, and an ammo mag that holds 5000 rounds.
So it can be with health.
If health care isn’t available to you, you go towards health.
- You drop to a healthier weight, and your high blood pressure corrects, your energy levels rise (not carrying around the extra weight), and your knees stop hurting
- You do a major dietary overhaul, and your blood sugar normalizes, your cholesterol improves, and your mood stabilizes
- You move your body every day, and your shoulders loosen up, your brain function sharpens, and your stress levels plummet
- You stop smoking cancer sticks, drinking every night, and otherwise putting yourself in harm’s way, and the No. 1 and 2 causes of death retreat from your doorstep
- You get serious about doing inner work and begin healing the trauma wounds that cause your self-destructive and self-sabotaging behaviors
All of which translates into fewer medical problems requiring regular doctor visits and prescription drugs.
Or worse, major organ dysfunction leading to (whispered) a hospitalization.
And finding allies?
Well, there’s information and helpful AIs aplenty on the Internet.
But companions on the road?
I think you have to put yourself out there.
When the algori—I mean, the game throws smiling charmers your way, they probably don’t have your party’s best interest in mind.
You go out and find a crew. And you explore together.
You work together, sweat and suffer together, and eventually come to trust each other. And suddenly, you know a guy who knows a guy who can really help you.
Isn’t this fun?
Kind of can be.
Kinda grim, contemplating a third-world healthcare state of affairs in a first-world country.
You can check the links if you think things are just grand.
This is a thought experiment. But it’s useful, as useful exercises are, because of its universality.
Whether things are great or sucky, it’s never a bad thing to buff your stats, develop a network, and find the occasional cheat code.
Where health is concerned, worst-case scenario, you end up fitter, less dependent on Pharma, helpful and supported, and prepared for lucky breaks.
What do you have to lose?
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