It's the weekend everybody! Hopefully we all have some time set aside to enjoy family, friends and decompress from a busy week. Today I want to share a little potpourri of anecdotal and perhaps antidotel information as to how we are contributing to the high costs of our healthcare system (yes even I am a potential culprit, but I am trained to know when I most-likely should go, therefore, I know when I don't need to go).Funfact: In our country we spend $700 billion a year in unnecessary medical treatment [1]. In a given year, $100 billion is spent on obesity related[1] - a highly, highly preventable problem that we won't address and we won't accept as preventable.
One of the reasons our healthcare system is on the up-and-up price wise relates to supply and demand (see High School Economics: Pay Attention or Pay the Price). Somehow our society has been conditioned to believe that every cough or sputter of some body fluid at an unwarranted time requires a trip to the ER. Folks, that is expensive - perhaps consideration on waiting for a doctor or nurse would have been much more beneficial and much more cost-reduced. This stems to why I believe we need to read more and watch less TV/Media. A basic understanding of the human body will greatly reduce the fear of sickness and therefore reduce the emergency trips.
I was a 300lb Teen
Here's a personal look as to why we waste nearly $100 million in healthcare. As a society, we preach prevention but are incapable of practicing. How many of us have overweight doctors? Would you trust them giving you nutrition and diet information if they can't follow their own knowledge? Here's the fact - At 18yrs of age I was 304lbs and walking around on a 5' 8" frame. That my friends is called holy-fat. Forget bariatrics - there's no room for Politically Correct when for no-good reason I was fat. In college I did two things - just two things that ANYONE can do - I ate clean and exercised - that's it. No pills, no as seen on TV gimmicks. I leaned basic sports nutrition and exercise science, learned how the human body functioned and then I walked, learned to jog and then learned to run. I am now around 200lbs, but my body fat is sub-20%, meaning I am muscular. That's it - it cost no extra money, I got my bottom out of the house rather than watching TV and made me the happiest I've been. The simple truth is that if you ever tell me that you will need surgery and that losing weight is too hard and I've tried so many things - I will come to your house, cut your cable-line, give you a biology book and tell you to read and walk for 1hr a day. I will clean out your junk-food and force you clean meals! That's the key to weight loss - it's so simple! $100 million is a lot of money to spend hiding from the truth.
Fact: Family Doesn't Always Know Best
During the first few of my EMT classes we had discussed the hazards of the job. Do you know what has made the list? Family. That's right. Because we spend so much time with certain family members we believe we know what they need medically and emotionally and how they need to be treated. If care givers don't do what we say - they are doing everything wrong! It's this mentality that family always knows best is another reason we waste so much money on emergency care and needless testing/procedures because we believe that the slightest ailment will do us in. If we feel ill, emergency care shouldn't make the top of the list of actions.
Prevention Cuts Cost
There is no magic fix to our skyrocketing healthcare costs and unaffordable insurance premiums. There is no group we can elect or hire. The only fix to our failing system is for us to assume responsibility for our health and prevent the need of accessing the medical system needlessly. Until we as a society assume responsibility and stop passing blame for our shortcomings there will be no solution to our healthcare system. They will continually raise the prices because we force them to.
Sources [1] http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/triage/2008/10/700-billion---.html
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