On to the subject...
I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about our health-care in the U.S.
These are my two cents, take it or leave it. I won't be offended if you disagree =)
I honestly and truly believe our country would be in a much better position for health care if Americans actually took care of themselves. I feel like I am in position to talk about this because I make a conscience, daily effort to take care of myself. I run 6 days a week, lift weights 3 days a week and eat a daily caloric intake of about 1300 calories. I have also lived a completely sedentary lifestyle up until I was 20 years old. So this is why I am standing on my soapbox to proclaim to the world that junk food/laziness is NOT worth it! Life is so much better living HEALTHY!!
All you see on the news these days is talk about how terrible health care is in America. I am completely against socialized health care that Obama wants. I think one way we could cut back on health care costs is making health care more expensive for people who had higher BMIs. I think it should be more expensive for people who have higher blood pressure. More expensive for people who have high cholestorol... etc etc. That's right I said it. Is this discrimination? Maybe. BUT I do think that this would motivate people to work at taking care of their bodies, which would minimize health care costs.
Or maybe we shouldn't make it more expensive for the unhealthy but LESS expensive for those who have a lower BMI, etc. I know there are some extreme circumstances where weight issues are not preventable (I have family members where this is the case) but for most cases, it's just plain laziness. The number one crisis in America right now is type 2 diabetes (almost always preventable) and cardiovascular diseases (also almost always preventable). Both of these are weight related issues that can be controlled (for the most part) It has a HUGE affect on affordable health care and a huge reason why medicaid is practically bankrupt.
Or maybe we shouldn't make it more expensive for the unhealthy but LESS expensive for those who have a lower BMI, etc. I know there are some extreme circumstances where weight issues are not preventable (I have family members where this is the case) but for most cases, it's just plain laziness. The number one crisis in America right now is type 2 diabetes (almost always preventable) and cardiovascular diseases (also almost always preventable). Both of these are weight related issues that can be controlled (for the most part) It has a HUGE affect on affordable health care and a huge reason why medicaid is practically bankrupt.
I think it is really sad how Americans just do not care and are lazy and so overweight. I know what kind of life that is... Like I have said... I lived it for a good portion of my life. I weighed 250 lbs just 5 years ago. My life now, weighing in at about 155-160 (which is by no means "skinny" but it is a healthy BMI)-- I can tell you... is SO SO SO much better! My asthma is practically gone and I have WAY more energy! Not to mention I can do things I never could have done before. It's amazing what our human bodies are capable of.
The point of this blog is to maybe motivate others to get up and be active and teach your kids and friends to take care of your bodies because honestly, these bodies we have are truly amazing and SUCH gift!!And then maybe health-care would be MUCH more affordable for the rest of us.
Just my thoughts. Hope I didn't offend someone. I am just really passionate about this because for most of my life I would wallow about my weight but NEVER do anything about it.. until finally I made a complete lifestyle change and I can tell you I will NEVER go back!
Just my thoughts. Hope I didn't offend someone. I am just really passionate about this because for most of my life I would wallow about my weight but NEVER do anything about it.. until finally I made a complete lifestyle change and I can tell you I will NEVER go back!
7 comments:
i SO agree with you. our bodies really are a wonderful gift and life is just better when you take care of the one you are given! i think it's great that you've learned this and that you are sharing it.
as far as the heath care stuff goes, i agree. if you work to take care of your body you should get a reward for it.
oh, and i definitely agree with you about getting together before you go back to texas!!!
If insurance is higher priced for smokers why can't it be for those who have a higher BMI. I think it does need to be on a heath basis that rates are determined.
I think you will like this post ... http://principleyrohat.blogspot.com/2009/07/why-does-this-sound-familiar-warning.html
Socialized health care is ... SOCIALISM. Which is COMMUNISM. Surprise! Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Kinda scary!
As long as the government stays out of it, I think insurance companies can charge how they want!
I do agree and if you ever run for president, I'll vote for you!
I do not regularly read your blog, but I was directed toward it through facebook a couple of months ago. The first thing I saw was this post, and I have been feeling like I need to respond to it ever since.
BMI is an entirely unreliable measure of health, particularly for tall people, athletes, and the elderly. Some simple research on BMI yields the following results:
For a given height, BMI is proportional to weight. However, for a given weight, BMI is inversely proportional to the square of the height. So, if all body dimensions double, and weight scales naturally with the cube of the height, then BMI doubles instead of remaining the same. This results in taller people having a reported BMI that is uncharacteristically high compared to their actual body fat levels.
Because the BMI is dependent only upon weight and height, it makes simplistic assumptions about distribution of muscle and bone mass, and thus may overestimate adiposity on those with more lean body mass (e.g. athletes) while underestimating adiposity on those with less lean body mass (e.g. the elderly).
A 2005 study in America showed that overweight people actually had a lower death rate than normal weight people as defined by BMI.
In an analysis of 40 studies involving 250,000 people, heart patients with normal BMIs were at higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease than people whose BMIs put them in the "overweight" range (BMI 25–29.9).
I am not saying that BMI is useless, but I am saying that it is definitely not appropriate to use it in the way that you have proposed.
I also believe that you are oversimplifying the problem by assuming that most health related problems are caused by junk food and laziness, particularly noting that type 2 diabetes is "almost always preventable."
Type 2 diabetes is believed to have a strong genetic link, meaning that it tends to run in families. Certain groups, such as African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Japanese Americans, have a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes than non-Hispanic whites. Increasing age is a significant risk factor for type 2 diabetes. The risk of developing type 2 diabetes begins to rise significantly at about age 45 years, and rises considerably after age 65 years. I believe that it was your friend Bruce Franson who attempted to correct you on this a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully you have given it some thought.
Denying, or pricing out, "unhealthy" people (as you called them) from quality health care will only make the problem worse. We end up paying for "unhealthy" people when they ultimately need to receive attention anyway. Unless you are advocating that we just let "unhealthy" people suffer and die (which I know you are not), providing "unhealthy" people with healthcare is unavoidable. That is one of the major reasons why healthcare costs have continued to rise.
While I agree with you that people who make a conscious effort to take care of themselves (congratulations on that) deserve to pay less for health coverage, it is not the way to fix our healthcare system right now. The best way, I believe, is to get all the "unhealthy" people into doctors so that their current problems can be taken care of and preventable future problems can be avoided. “Unhealthy” people are the ones that need healthcare the most! Emotionally, it is easy to resent “unhealthy” people, blame “unhealthy” people for the healthcare problem, and want to see “unhealthy” people pay for it. Logically it makes a whole lot more sense for everyone to want to help the “unhealthy” people become healthier now so that everyone will not have to pay for it later. Prevention is the key, and it makes no sense to punish people who, for whatever reason, aren’t practicing prevention with LESS access to important resources for prevention.
Well, you said you wouldn’t be offended if I disagreed, and I think I have made my position quite clear. No offense was intended on my end, I just hope I have given you something to think about.
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