Health Expenditure % of GDP
When it comes to health, most people naturally relate it to their own self. Actually, it is more than a personal matter. It is a family matter, a social matter, an economic matter. It is global. It is …
Health is a family matter. Time and again, we see that a family can be so badly affected just because of one person’s illness. Not too long ago, I learned of a story like so. An indirect friend, Michael, moved from Hong Kong with his family to reside in Sydney. The husband and wife both got very good jobs in the corporate. Two sons were doing well in school and university. It is a picture of a healthy happy family ready to explore the new horizon. But one year later, shortly after the husband, Michael, was diagnosed cancer, we saw a totally different picture. He had to give up his job. He kind of shrank by one size. He turned almost bald. The wife quitted her job because she had to take care of the husband. And, as to the boys, they would not have as much time on their studies as they did part-time work after class to help out the family. The elder one even considered to turn his full-time study into a part-time one in the following year.
Health is also a social matter. It is not easy to cope with the stress and pressure when you have a very sick person at home. At times, this might be the trigger for marriage breakdown, adolescent problems, depression, domestic violence, and the list goes on and on.
Health is also an economic issue. Do you know that the total global expenditure for health (or rather say the sickness industry) was US$4.1 trillion+ in 2004. America’s spending on health was 5.1% of the GDP in 1960, but rising to a staggering 15.3% of the GDP in 2005. If this is any indicator to our trend, we have a cause to be concerned. With the aging of the boomers, you can really feel the pressure is mounting.
For whatever we are doing now, we are handing a legacy to the future generations.
So, on reflection, you know that when you take care of your body, and your health, you are not only caring yourself, but you are doing a wonderful contribution to your family, your society, your country, and the world. Isn’t that nice? 
Live life, Junius
p.s. information on GDP related: http://masetto.sourceoecd.org/vl=3847189/cl=34/nw=1/rpsv/health2007/5-2.htm
Sometimes, we get easily carried away by things happening around us and we don’t realize that we have missed the big picture. In the long run, we pay a bitter price.
Take mine as an example. For a long time in the past, I was so focused on making money that I barely had much time for my family. My mind was so occupied that I often appeared as indifferent or insensitive. Looking back, my family had missed out a good part of our life together especially the bringing up of our two boys during their adolescence years.
Having a concept of holistic life is important. It helps us to keep things in prospective.
My model of a holistic life is represented by eight sectors joined together to make a full circle. You can imagine if the circle is full, it is like a fully inflated wheel. Of course, it would run very smoothly. By referring to the picture, you could evaluated your score from 0 (the center point), to full score 10 (the circumference) on each sector. When you link them together, you would see how round your “circle” is.
Some of the essential questions I would ask myself:
1/ Family – is it in name, or in substance?
2/ Health – am I settling for “not getting sick”, or attaining the optimal form and vitality?
3/ Wealth – am I building pipelines or carrying buckets?
4/ Career – is this still my passion, putting the money matter aside?
5/ Leisure – what else there I would like to do for pleasure?
6/ Relations – how well am I connected with my network of friends and contacts?
7/ Personal Development – do I put aside at least half an hour a day to nurture my knowledge bank?, and
8/ Spiritual – is there an even bigger picture beyond the earthly things?
You might come up with more questions, or you might even come up with a different version of holistic life altogether. It is perfectly alright. Whatever that is important to you counts. The main point here is to start us thinking.
Live Life, Junius.
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