Marcosthecuban blogs:
There’s an elephant in the room.
What few seem to be willing to discuss is the possibility that we are the reasons for expensive health care and that we Americans ourselves are responsible for the consequences of:
1. Low birth rate & zero population growth. This has lead to a shortage of younger people to pay taxes and subsidize health insurance coverage and keeps increasing the percentage of older people which need extreme health care. American society is progressively aging and failing to replace itself. No amount of regulatory reform can overcome the consequences of that.
2. Obesity. We are one of the fattest societies on the planet. Even young kids are trending too fat and you can connect the dots on what that means for the future.
3. Lack of exercise. More dots.
4. Self-medication. We are the most self-medicated society on the planet. We want a pill for EVERYTHING and are intolerant and afraid of any discomfort or dysfunction. Better living through medication (has its price).
5. Litigiousness. USA has 5% of the world’s population and 95% of the world’s lawyers. Every time anything bad happens, sue somebody. We are lawsuit CRAZED. You got rear-ended? you won the lottery! But being the most litigious society on the planet has its costs, in fact, we all pay for this every day- especially with healthcare. Some doctors pay $200,000 per year in malpractice premiums alone and one study says that up to 1/3 of all hospital costs are run up because of fear of litigation.
If you are a lean, unmedicated parent of at least 2.3 kids,get plenty of exercise, and you have never sued anybody you deserve low-cost health care!
But, is there an HMO for that?
Why don’t you just go and burn a flag? This is the most un-American post I have ever read. The America and Americans I know are just fine playing hot-potato with problems, so you can take your responsibility and go to Canada.
Pretty funny Nathan, your sarcasm is well taken.
Actually this is the truest most rational thing I’ve seen on Aspen Post in a LONG time! Kudos Marcos for your astute observations.
I am one of those “lean, unmedicated parent of at least 2.3 kids” (well 1 kid, his wife and my grandchild) “get plenty of exercise, and…have never sued anybody.” I signed up for health insurance three times in the last 12 years. Each time I was never able to meet my deductable, (twice because there was just nothing wrong with me, and the third time because the insurance company kept denying my claims) so I ended up paying $6000 a year for nothing.
Last year because my claims were denied for an injury I was having treated, I ended up paying over $4000 for medical care ON TOP of the $6000 for insurance. I was only working part time and then lost my job in September, so I only made $9000 last year. TWO THIRDS OF MY INCOME WENT TO HEALTH CARE COSTS!!! Would have been more if I’d been able to pay it all. But my medical bills piled up, went to debt collection agencies and now I’m paying small monthly increments with interest. At this rate it’s going to be another year before I’m caught up.
Each time I’ve had insurance I‘ve had to cancel it because of a drop in my income. I’m now without insurance again. Luckily I’m very healthy, but injuries, accidents, and diseases do tend to plague people my age (52). All I can do is keep my fingers crossed for some sort of sane alternative to the status quo.
What did the Obama campaign call it…Hope?
“If you are a lean, unmedicated parent of at least 2.3 kids,get plenty of exercise, and you have never sued anybody you deserve low-cost health care!”
Where is the blame for;
First – we have Wall Street indoctrinating kids before they can walk about the virtues of soft drinks and processed foods with no nutritional value like Oscar Myer kids meal. With some soda having 17 teaspoons of sugar per serving and local ads for 6 12 packs for 12 bucks, well you know what happens.
Secondly – we have the public schools which are another junk food dealer with their concession stands and soft drink dispensers. Worse most schools have done away with P.E. and replaced the class with a bullshit computer course of some kind(like kids don’t get enough computer time). P.E. is essential for kids physical and mental development and the idiot education experts whacked it.
So much for getting kids to learn about fitness and good health practices.
P.E. or whats left of it in High School is often no more than a Soviet style screening program to find potential athletes for the school spots teams. Hardly the place where life long fitness habits will be ingrained. Most kids hated it with a passion, because by that time most knew they weren’t good at sports(as opposed to exercising which is often conflated with sports by school officials).
Third – the demise of Home Economics. Guess what? If you can’t cook you eat out and that means – fast(junk) food. Sure Home Ec. wasn’t politically correct but it did teach the essentials. Good home cooking is always better than fast food and a lot of the so-called franchise eateries like The Outback or Olive Garden.
Fourth – some ethnic sub-groups have horrific eating habits and you can see it with their children who by the age of 18 are already bloated and pre-diabetic. Yep tacos with beans laced with a couple of tablespoons of bacon fat isn’t even remotely healthy or for that matter is a Big Mac. add MSG to the mix and whammo
Fifth – most work today is cubicle work – basically most people re confined to cubes 8-10 hrs a day and barely move, which is good if we’re turning Geese into veal or factory farming swine but a disaster for people. Nothing can really be done about this.
What we can do though is fix our schools(by firing all those inbred pot bellied buffoons who teach Gym and hiring real fitness trainers instead) and put a muzzle on what can be shown on children’s tv channels. Then slap a 20% tax on fast food and candy.
This way we’ll get a healthier younger generation.
I wouldn’t even waste time on the older folks, the smarter ones will either realize they need to change their lifestyles or die a early death. The dumber ones would have to be forced at the barrel of a gun to change their habits so its better to let them eat their way to a early grave.
Infowars.com
I agree with letting people suffer under the consequences of their decisions, but then you conclude by calling for a 20% tax on fast food. You know that wouldn’t work right? Has the cigarette taxes worked? No, education is always the answer. We have educated children and adults about effects of tobacco and yet many continue to smoke. But like you said “The dumber ones would have to be forced at the barrel of a gun to change their habits so it’s better to let them [smoke or] eat their way to an early grave.” Our nutrition is our choice and it should always be our own choice. If we supply the children and adults with the proper education and yet they fall to gluttony, then so be it. Let them fall. The only nutrition problem this country currently faces is our poor education. You did a great job of exploring some of these failures and even included some secondary consequences. Great post.
Sue,
Many of people I talk too are going through similar financial situations, but not everybody has your hope. Hope in itself is a bad thing, but when you couple it with determination, hope becomes a great thing.
Insurance is a business. Next time you can afford to pay for insurance go get a monthly price from your insurance company and then pay that amount to a savings account. Don’t the touch the money except when you have health cost. If your health costs go over the amount you have in your account then pay your monthly payment towards the bill instead of the saving account. Make sure to get an insurance quote every year to adjust your monthly payment to yourself. Insurance is a business and a very good one at that. They have risk assessment down to an art, so take advantage of it.
You paid more in health insurance then they paid towards your medical bills. Of course, it’s a business. Keep your money and you can’t get screwed.