Healthcare vs. “Sick Care”
The first time I truly considered the difference between healthcare and “sick care” was during the beginning of my wellness coaching education. I watched a video featuring Dr. Andrew Weil, a pioneer in integrative medicine. His focus was on the American healthcare system and the fact that it does not focus on proactive health but instead on putting a patch on sickness.
And he was absolutely right.
When you hear the word healthcare, what comes to mind? Probably a doctor’s office. Maybe a hospital. Prescriptions, insurance forms, long waits in an office. For most of us, healthcare has come to mean what happens when we’re already sick—a system we turn to when something goes wrong.
As a society, we’ve been conditioned to think of health as the absence of disease. If we don’t have a diagnosis, we assume we’re “fine.” But health isn’t just the absence of symptoms—it’s the presence of vitality. A sense of balance in our bodies and our lives. And getting there requires more than managing symptoms—it calls for being proactive about our health.
The conventional medical system does many things well. It’s excellent in emergencies, acute care, and lifesaving interventions. But chronic lifestyle-related illnesses—like diabetes, heart disease, hormonal imbalances, digestive issues, and burnout—are on the rise and are not being effectively addressed by our current system.
Why? Because the system is reactive. It waits until something is wrong, then responds. It treats the effect—not always the cause. This is sick care: managing illness rather than cultivating wellness.
Most appointments are brief. Labs may look “normal” even when a person doesn’t feel well—because those “normal” ranges are often based on a largely unhealthy population. And too often, treatment comes in the form of a prescription, rather than a conversation about diet, movement, stress, sleep, or mental health.
Healthcare—real healthcare—is proactive. It supports the body before it breaks down, or works to uncover and address the root cause of imbalance. It looks at the whole person: not just symptoms, but lifestyle, mindset, and environment. It asks better questions:
How are you really feeling?
What’s your daily life like?
What does your body need right now?
This kind of care is preventive. It’s personalized. And it empowers people to make choices that support long-term well-being—not just temporary relief.
True healthcare recognizes that our bodies are wise and always communicating. When something feels off, it’s not random—it’s a message. And instead of quieting the symptoms and moving on, we need to start asking: Why is this happening in the first place?
The next time you see your healthcare practitioner, ask them for their thoughts on this. The answer they give you could be very interesting.
