Poem Call to Babyboomers

Operator, please connect me to America’s babyboomers
Yes, those 78 million soon to be health care consumers.

All born after the year of nineteen forty six,
Now about ready to qualify for a Medicare fix.

Pause…

Hello, all you baby boomers
Have you heard the rumors?

That as you grow old and startto age
You’ll turn over a new health page.

That you will be much more demanding,
To avoid a life style crash landing.

That you will flock to cosmetic operations,
To lookyouthful for all possible occasions.

That you will seek new hips and knees,
To remain free of any over-use disease.

That at all costs you will avoid unseemly unsightliness,
No contacts or bifocals, but lasers to hid nearsightedness.

That you will come to doctors’ offices with e-downloads,
Gathered during your many trips down electronic roads.

That you will examine doctor data outcomes,
To comparison shop for the best value sums.

Most doctors know these rumors are misleading,
Indeed, that many are simply not worth heeding.

Like all patients you’re looking for best advice,
Not necessarily the best price or latest device.

Life, health, prevention, imagined and real disease
Are so complicated no single approach will all please.

Keep your faith in doctors, be reasonable.
For you they will do whatever is feasible.

In the end, it’s all about options and choices,
And about physicians listening to your voices.

For your care you deserve freedom and to be in charge,
To partner with doctors in a relationship writ large.