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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (6319)	3/12/2009 8:45:12 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42652

Since our health care SYSTEM includes public health and prevention, what would you propose to do about all the destructive personal behaviors that comprise one of the key causes of our poor health and our high cost burden? I've thought about that, a lot. Two years ago I started (semi)speed walking 4-6 miles almost every morning, pre-dawn. Feel better than I have in my life (lost 30+ pounds). There are so many studies out there about how non-stressful, moderate exercise (especially brisk walking) for less than an hour a day ~4-5 times a week decreases the risk of most every expensive disease by, usually, in the range of 50%. That includes everything from heart disease to diabetes to depression to dementia. So (for the sake of argument) let's say that we can reduce our health care costs by, say, 35% by getting people to brisk walk 45 minutes per day 5 days a week (or some equivalent exercise). How do you turn that into public/private insurance company policy? Good question. The public/private insurance companies could give a 35% discount to (non handicapped) people who comply. How do you check on compliance... there are ways but they are pretty intrusive. Or maybe you start with a public campaign to get our obese kids to exercise... we force our kids to brush their teeth everyday certainly a minimum amount of daily exercise is more important to their health. But back on topic... right now the health insurance industry is not invested in lowering health care premiums. Like any other industry if their gross margin percentage is relatively fixed then the higher their revenue the higher their profit. Lowering their insurance premiums by 35% would likely lower their profits by 35%... or more because of fixed costs. I'm not sure of the exact solution but I don't think private insurance companies have a vested interest. I know somehow we have to get people off their asses and doing something physical every day as part of the solution. Sorry for the stream of consciousness post but I haven really thought this through... still percolating in my mind.