Being a medical student I hear a lot about the current health care reform debate. I think that this article hits it right on the head--essentially, it is our poor habits that is causing health care costs to rise (even though admittedly the system could be better). Take a read, you might have a different view on things.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/opinion/10pollan.html?_r=1
6 comments:
I absolutely agree!! As an aside...there are several studies done on people of Mormon and Jewish faiths and their general lack of severe diseases (diabetes and cancer to start with) as a direct relation to their diets and personal habits. It's amazing how much control we have over our bodies and what they can do for us. It is a responsibility given to us from a loving Father in Heaven and one that is taken far too lightly.
Also - I work in the health care field and I can tell you that as a heavier person your quality of care is diminished. Your care is only as good as the images taken and procedures performed, all of which are tougher to read/and do on heavier patients.
Rising scales equals rising health care costs? It's an interesting thought and totally makes sense to me.
That's really interesting. Thanks for sharing.
That was interesting. It kills me when I watch TV and 60% of the commercials are for fast food or junk food from stores. (That percentage was made up by me.)
Agree 100%. I am always ranting and raving about the reason we have such crap health care is because america is sooo fat and we don't take care of our bodies!! Thanks for the article!
The Biggest Loser begins tonight!
:)
While I wholeheartedly agree that the American diet is a huge (no pun intended) and expensive problem, the more I hear and read about health care the more I realize that it's really impossible to lay blame for our screwed up system on one entity or group. It'd be nice to be able to blame the insurance companies, the physicians, the patients, the government, or even the food industry, but this recent Atlantic article (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200909/health-care) convinced me that the underlying problem is that our health care system royally messes with the fundamental principles of supply and demand, which in turn skews the financial incentives to provide quality care at a lower cost than your competitor. This author proposes some radical reforms, but I think he's right about the fact that until consumers themselves can force providers to offer lower prices (by forcing them to truly compete), the other reforms are just band-aids.
That's not to discount the myriad of problems that contribute to a health care system fraught with issues (our diet, lack of exercise, insurance cost, insurance rescision, pricing opacity, etc.), but the system we have now is a natural product of economics.
And...I'm done.
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