Why Wait To Get Sick

The Hotpot | December 2025 | By Lisanne

9.12

Our healthcare system is designed to intervene as soon as we’re already sick.

It’s designed to provide treatments that can make us healthy, but it doesn’t prevent us from getting ill.

We’re patched up, prescribed, stabilized. Grateful, yes — but rarely guided toward the kind of daily choices that prevent the spiral in the first place.

In some ways it’s easier to treat the emergency than to nurture the long game — easier to fix a crisis than to consistently invest in the kind of life that might have prevented it.

Some countries prove it doesn’t have to be this way:

Japan asks schools to cook fresh meals on-site, teach nutrition as part of the curriculum, and treat eating well as a civic skill — not a luxury or an afterthought.

Finland sends nurses into schools to teach kids how to stay healthy long before problems appear.

The Netherlands runs nationwide prevention programs to cut smoking and obesity instead of waiting for chronic disease.

Germany offers free annual checkups and lifestyle counseling as a standard part of care — not an afterthought.

Small things, built into the system, before things fall apart.

But it’s more interesting to ask ourselves which future we are budgeting for. Is it the inevitable, costly crisis—the $100,000 bailout for a health system under siege? Or is it the compound interest of daily, preventative health?

The richest countries don’t just treat sickness well; they prioritize staying well.

And while we push for better systems, true health is not waiting for a political revolution; it starts with the simple choices we make at our own dinner table today.

Thanks for reading! The journal prompt of today:

What kinds of things do you do to avoid getting sick?

Let me know in the comments.

Curious to see more reflections like this? Click through to see the rest of the series on self-care. I’d love to hear what resonates with you.