We have the know-how needed to shift the focus of health care from treating late-stage disease to providing intervention before problems arise.

The health care system can be structured to provide each of us with our own health plans detailing personal health risks and providing direction and support to mitigate our risks. This will put us in far greater command of our health, increase individual responsibility and enhance the value of each dollar spent.

Why are we not doing this already? Today's medical practice evolved out of a disease-based approach. The M.D. focuses on treating disease once it has occurred, and our health insurance reimbursement system rewards late-stage intervention and not prevention or

wellness. The mounting wave of progress in health care delivery is enabling a more rational practice of health care, which looks forward rather than backward–creating better future health than getting you back to where you were before the problem began.

Clearly, an ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of cure. But, why stop there? What about the prospect of working to maintain a high level of health? Or, better still, actually having a plan to investigate and implement lifestyle changes that promote the development of health over a lifetime.

To avoid a catastrophic collapse of the current system, we must make the financial and legal changes that can ensure fundamental improvements in how care is delivered.