Health care crisis

A stitch in time saves nine.
An American Proverb

In recent years, there’s been a growing debate about the health care crisis in America. Many people believe the government should guarantee some form of health insurance for everyone, and they’ve tried to enact legislation to accomplish that goal. With a new administration in power, there’s been renewed talk about health care reform.

The other side of the debate is the cost of health care to the government. Total Medicare spending reached $440 billion for fiscal year 2007; that’s 16% of all federal spending. And the cost of health care is growing at a rate that’s unsustainable.

There are certainly heart wrenching stories about children who suffer because they don’t have access to adequate medical care. I believe that, as a society, we must take care of those who are unable to take care of themselves.

But it seems to me that we’re debating the wrong question. In my opinion, too much of the health care discussion focuses on the symptoms while ignoring the underlying causes.

The vast majority of health care problems can be traced directly to two things — poor lifestyle choices and stress. According to the government web site healthreform.gov, “60% of early deaths are a result of behavioral influences such as obesity, lack of exercise, smoking, and living conditions.” The core problem is not a lack of health care. It’s people who won’t do the things necessary to prevent health care issues.

Does the government have an obligation to take care of those who knowingly neglect to care for themselves, thus deliberately undermining their own health?

If everyone followed a healthy lifestyle, watched their diet, got regular exercise and avoided tobacco, excessive alcohol, and illegal drugs, we could dramatically reduce the total amount of money spent on health care. The savings should easily allow us to provide universal health care.

The President’s fact sheet on innovative workplace practices (source: healthreform.gov) cites several examples of how businesses saved money via prevention. Among them are Pitney Bowes and Johnson & Johnson, companies that have put great effort into encouraging employee health. Pitney Bowes’s “commitment to increase employee participation in managing their own health have resulted in $40 million in savings over the last nine years.” Likewise, Johnson & Johnson’s “health initiatives avoided an estimated $15.9 million in health care costs in 2007.”

If we’re going to provide health care to everyone, then I believe we have the right to require that everyone become a co-insurer: that they contribute to minimizing the cost by making healthy lifestyle choices.

It seems we’ve accepted the practice of treating symptoms rather than the underlying causes. We need to realize that we can no longer put a band-aid on a serious illness.

When we start treating the underlying causes, we’ll find the cure for many of our problems.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Benjamin Franklin
1706 – 1790