by Nina
Okay, I admit it: the government shutdown and the fight over health care is making me grouchy. So far, we have been avoiding controversial topics like politics on the blog, and I think that’s a good idea, so don’t worry I’m not going to go there. Instead, I’m going to go ahead and rant about a saying that I hear sometimes in the yoga community:
Yoga is My Health Insurance
Promoting this idea—that you don’t need health insurance if you practice yoga—that yoga is a replacement for western medicine—is both irresponsible and delusional.
On the staff of Yoga for Healthy Aging, we have two medical doctors, two medical researchers, and a physical therapist. And every one of these people not only has their own health insurance, but all would assure you that yoga cannot solve all your health problems. And thinking that it can is both foolish and dangerous.
Because modern yoga has been popular in the US for decades now, we now have a large number of people—particularly yoga teachers—who have been practicing yoga for 30, 40, or even more years. And I’ve been watching them struggling with some of the same major health concerns we all must face, from cancer and Parkinson’s Disease to serious and lasting injuries due to car accidents and arthritis that necessitates joint replacements. (I’m thinking of people I know here—it’s likely you know other yoga teachers with other serious conditions.) Of course, yoga can help someone with serious illnesses or injuries, providing improved quality of life and possibly ameliorating certain troublesome symptoms, but it cannot prevent or cure those diseases. Would we really want any of these people to go without the help—sometimes lifesaving help—that could be provided by western medicine?
Obviously, we wouldn’t have started this blog if we didn’t all believe that yoga was a powerful tool for fostering healthy aging. And we continue to believe that is true. But we don’t for a second believe that yoga is our health insurance, or that it should be yours.
This rant was approved by Dr. Baxter Bell and Dr. Brad Gibson.
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I think it depends on how you look at it. Some people genuinely cannot afford health insurance premiums (plus co-pays) and don't have any realistic choices. For those people, yoga (plus a healthy diet) is the best health insurance they can find at this time. It's not about being irresponsible (that's a judgement); it's about being honest about their current situation.
I think you have misunderstood me. Obviously someone who cannot afford health insurance is not irresponsible (though I hope one day everyone will have it). What I believe is irresponsible is for yoga teachers or practitioners to try to convince others that yoga can solve all medical problems and therefore western medicine is unnecessary. To me that is the message of the slogan "Yoga is my health insurance." That implies that yoga is all you will ever need. If you are poor and have cancer, I hope that you will be able to somehow find the medical care you need–and deserve, even if that means friends doing a fundraiser or whatever. We just don't want people to think that yoga will solve all their health problems. –Nina
Hi Nina, I enjoyed your rant and appreciate it as well. I am an acupuncturist as well as yoga teacher, so I also come across this attitude in my acupuncture practice–"don't like doctors, had a terrible experience, haven't been to one in years, don't have health insurance, take care of myself with (fill in the blank)." There is certainly a time and place for declining medical care–particularly when there is a good alternative or risks outweigh benefits or at end of life–but to ignore the reality, both of what Western medicine can offer and of the financial consequences of lack of coverage, is indeed delusional.
I absolutely believe that my yoga practice and the various treatments I receive/self-administer have improved my health and my quality of life, and have decreased my need for visits to the doctor's office. But to choose to go without health insurance in the world we live in not only puts me at risk, but also everyone who loves me, who would dig into their savings to help me if I had a catastrophe and no way to pay for it.
This has always been the ultimate argument for me–even if I didn't care what happens to me (which I do), it feels irresponsible (and hardly in the spirit of ahimsa) to put my loved ones at risk. So this what I think about as I write my rather huge check for health insurance every month–I'm doing this for love.