In light of an article on healthcare costs in this month's Reader's Digest

[tenguzero]

I'm proposing several suggestions, all of which (in my opinion) would go a great distance towards bringing the costs of healthcare back down in this country, and key to this is the government gets off its ass and makes some real strides toward a concept (I'm sure) many doctors and pharmaceutical companies shy away from like the plague: prevention.

We're currently awash in this "designer prescription" society -- every ailment you could conceive of has some sort of prescription drug (or family of drugs) tied to managing its symptoms.
-- Having trouble sleeping? There's about half a dozen drugs out there that can "help" many people (or, as recent statistics show, put them to sleep behind the wheel.)
--Feeling a little "down"? Well you MUST have depression (or my personal favorite, and one that's particular popular with aloof teenagers, "manic" depression ) And nothing treats depression like pills!
--And of course, there's everyone's prescription golden-child: ADD/ADHD. Right. So, your child is wired in class? They're full of energy and have trouble concentrating? Here's something you can try that might help -- when they get home from school, throw their ass outside and make them burn off all that pent up energy. I find it slightly more than mere coincidence that the sharp rise in diagnosis of these stupid ADD/ADHD cases over the past decade or two just happens to mirror the rise of the videogame s to prominent status in young lives. I'm sorry mom and dad, but 4 hours of Halo does NOT constitute a physically productive hobby for your kid. This plays right into my next observation of a condition that also plays heavily on healthcare costs right now...
--Obesity. For the love of all that is sane, get your fat ass off the couch and do some exercise. Methinks true "glandular" afflictions are few and far between in the world of fatties. I have little sympathy for overweight people, because it's a condition that is absolutely affecting the cost of healthcare right now. And what's even worse about it? It's absolutely preventable! I work 45 hours a week, and yet I still find the time to practice Aikido and hit the gym three nights a week, plus biking or other outdoor activities on the weekend. I'm sure if people would just spend a little less time away from the TiVo, internet poker, videogames, and the workplace, they would find they have all kinds of free time for actual exercise.

Now, why do I think the government has a key role in this? Because they have the ability to affect mandates and provide easily accessable programs. Take the herbal market for instance: do some quick research on the amount of people who have pursued holistic/natural remedies for their afflictions. It's staggering how many medicine cabinets have bottles of St. John's Wort, or Garlic, or Ginkgo Biloba, or Echinacea. We buy energy drinks and consume foods possessing Ginseng, Guarana, and Taurine. We flock to cure-all supplements that are essentially cocktails of herbal compounds. Herbs DO WORK (coincidentially many synthetic prescription medications are based on herbs that have been used for thousands of years.) Americans love natural treatments.
http://www.mental-health-matters.com....php?artID=419

And why shouldn't we? Many herbs can provide the same benefits as prescription medicines -- without the side effects. Unfortunately, the herb industry in the west is hamstringed by a lack of true standardization. In Asian countries, key parts of the herbal industry are treated like the pharmaceutical industry here -- with required mandates and standardization of ingredients.

Now, it's widely agreed that Western medicine is tops when it comes to immediate treatment of afflictions, but in the key field of prevention (and also recuperation) the powers-that-be in this country are doing a grave disservice to the citizens (and the cost of healthcare) by NOT fully embracing methods based on Eastern medicine (acupuncture, herbs, martial arts for wellbeing, etc.) physical fitness services, greater pharmaceutical industry regulation, and more.

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's when people pull the "without the revenue of widely prescribed drugs, the pharmaceutical companies can't afford to invest in the real important ones that treat dire afflictions" card. That is such a line of bullshit it's not funny. So let me get this straight, we're supposed to put up with being held at gunpoint by one hand to buy into "designer" prescriptions, so the other hand can justify giving us the real valuable medication? Does anyone else find this troubling?

I (along with an estimated 80% of the population) have to sit back and watch hard earned money get funnelled out of my paycheck for healthcare services largely used by the remaining 20% of the population. Now, I wouldn't have a problem with this if I knew it was being put to good use (assistance for seniors, research into lifesaving resources and experimental surgeries, help for those who have legitimate reasons for not being able to afford/access healthcare services, compensation to help people afford gym memberships and fitness programs, and maybe even my own needs one day) but instead I see it being spent on freeloaders, bullshit malpractice suits, and chronic healthcare abusers.

I caught a show on television once where a young woman was talking about her experience with hospital costs required as a result of a major skydiving accident. She noted that her insurance company wouldn't cover her because the incident was a result of willfull endangerment, or something to that effect. And yet, how much is that insurance company paying out to overweight people to cover the costs of their surgeries, treatments, and diabetes medicines? Couldn't the act of letting yourself get ridiculously fat/unhealthy be considered willfull endangerment?

It's true what they say about the current state of our healthcare system -- everyone deserves a share of the blame in some form or another:

1. The government: for not stepping in to create regulation and make policy where it's needed (screw "The President's Physical Fitness Program", they should create a free service along the lines of bootcamp/PT programs that will almost guarantee fitness results for participants) and where regulation would do a lot of good (the herbal industry for instance.)

2. The doctors and pharmaceutical companies for their roles in keeping us a country hooked on unnecessary drugs, and leading us to believe that it's the only way they can justify giving us the truly needed ones.

3. The freeloaders and ambulance chasing lawyers who don't think twice about abusing the hell out of the system for their own personal and financial ends.

4. The schools for cutting gym classes and recess periods in favor of increasing classroom time in a vain attempt to try and make up for severe educational failings on their part.

5. And finally the citizens -- for letting ourselves get fat and unhealthy, allowing our children to do the same, turning to the "easy answer" in a pill bottle instead of looking at the otherwise controllable factors in our daily lives that are most likely causing the affliction in the first place, and letting ourselves get steamrolled into living a life forever concerned about whether or not we can afford to get sick.

[thrasher]

I couldn't agree more that obesity, and many afflictions that are diagnosed so commonly nowadays are easily preventable and thus deserve far more attention in the area of prevention as opposed to treatment. I think I would place less blame on the government than you, though, and focus more on pharmaceutical companies who stand to gain a lot more from overprescription of unnecessary drugs that amass them far greater profits. Let's face reality; it's driven by the bottom line like everything in this country, and this channels right on up to the government. Think about the big liquor and tobacco companies that fund all of the anti-marijuana campaigns, that illustrates the concept best. However, I would like to point out that:

Holistic medicine is starting to become far more prominent in US medical school curricula
Overprescription is finally starting to be tackled by medical professionals who recognize it as a problem
Awareness about general health in the US at least seems to be catching on, as can be seen in the big push for far healthier foods and ad campaings urging Americans to get off their fat asses and exercise for ONLY 30 minutes a day

[TexasF355F1]

Yea, obesity is treated with excercise and diet. No one has any fucking will-power anymore. Everyones so quick to pop a pill.

Like Chris Rock says, "They've got a pill for whatever you have"

[YogsVR4]

Government should mandate some changes? Ok, bring back prohibition. In fact, outlaw cigarettes and realy crack down on illicit drugs. When the government steps in (as they already have in health care) expect costs to soar.

[tenguzero]

Originally Posted by YogsVR4

Government should mandate some changes? Ok, bring back prohibition. In fact, outlaw cigarettes and realy crack down on illicit drugs. When the government steps in (as they already have in health care) expect costs to soar.

Why not mandate some more changes? How could it hurt the American public? I'm not saying a disproportionately large amount of the blame lies with the government (which was the reason why I distributed blame evenly amongst the subjects in my list) but does it not behoove the govt. to want a healthier, and hence less healthcare service-dependent population? How could there be a negative prospect in requiring a body like the FDA to initiate standardization practices for herbal companies? Or provide some sort of PT-style program that will all but guarantee results for participants, or at least help low-income families afford fitness center memberships.

Obviously many of these programs could be taken care of at the state and even local level, and many initiatives, like healthier school lunch menus, happen just that way. However, there are also many places that definitely could use a strong nudge -- and perhaps one way might be more assistance from the higher levels of government to help them combat the practices of the massive fast food, grocery, and high-volume food supply industries.

Despite an increased health-awareness movement, we are still the fattest country in the world, for all the reasons I spoke of in my previous post. And this in turn, I feel, contributes a great deal more to soaring healthcare costs than some government intervention ever could. I'm not saying I want the government telling me what to eat, where to eat, and when I'm going to eat it. I'd just like to see a greater initiative on its part to make it easier for me, and the hundreds of millions of other Americans out there, to access fitness services (assist with fitness memberships, stop the schools from continuing to kill physical activity periods,) afford healthier foods (if you regularly do a large amount of your shopping in the produce section like I do, your grocery bill doesn't exactly look pretty,) and feel more confident in what we're buying (get on the food companies to start properly laying out nutrition facts, and bring the FDA to task on evaluation and standardization of herbal and other natural remedies.)

Again, it's a process we ALL play an important role in, and I could just as easily elaborate on a different part of the problem than just the government angle.

[YogsVR4]

A big part of the problem of health care costs is that the actual cost is lost on the consumer. Most people crying about the cost of insurance but not the cost of the care itself. Instead of shopping around for better prices, people say "insurance will cover it". I believe peoples perception of insurance is like people perceptions of government programs - they forget that the money has to come from some place.

I don't question that people would be better off with a healthier lifestyle but the solution isn't with the government. The only thing the government does efficiently is take our money and blow shit up.

Perhaps the schools should have a few more semesters of home economics. A few cooking classes on how to prepare decent meals would make a bigger difference then trying to get people to exercise more. Everyone needs to eat, but not everyone needs to play sports (of any type).

The only way for people to get healthier is to convince them its the right thing to do. Of course, that does not mean that health care costs will drop one dime. A thousand dollar MRI on for a hockey injury is the same thousand dollars for a years worth of heart medication and the same as four pediatric visits etc. To lower costs, people have to be willing to shop for lower prices.