Unless you have been in a coma or just got back from an expedition up the Amazon, you have heard a lot of recent talk about the rising cost of health care and some pretty vigorous debate about how to deal with it. A number of states are saying that they cannot/will not comply with the increased Medicare funding and the federal government response is that the will not get full federal funding if they don’t. Health care costs are spiraling out of control, no argument. But I think that we are having the wrong discussion when we talk about “how we are going to pay for it”. Nobody talks about lowering cost by lowering the need for so much care.
America is a sick nation (medically speaking). From autism to kidney failure, we are seeing dramatic and unexplained increases in health problems. Consider how many times in your life you have been asked to contribute to finding a cure for …………… (you fill in the blank). Besides the for profit medical research, we have been giving billions of dollars to the Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, Diabetes Association, et al. It never ends, and what has actually been cured since Polio in 1955? We are able to treat lots of diseases, but actually curing them is a different story.
It has been alleged by some that there is no financial incentive to have everybody be well but there are fortunes to be made on conditions that need a lifetime of treatment. My personal observation sure backs this up. Another personal observation is that people who are “health nuts” really do seem to be a lot healthier, for a lot longer, and therefore require much less conventional health care over the course of their lives. One of my heroes is Jack LaLanne, who lived to age 96. He was an early proponent of weight training and nutrition and maintained an exercise regimen up to the day he died. Back in the late 30’s when he opened his first health club, doctors advised their patients to stay away because they would “become muscle bound and have heart attacks”. Turns out ol’ Jack knew what he was talking about.
I’ve also known some local guys who are similar examples. A couple of years ago, I rode the 100 mile Highlander Cycle Tour. Over the course of this ride, you do almost 12,000 feet of elevation change as you wind around the Finger Lakes. One of the guys in our group was 63 at the time and he rode circles around me. There is another gentleman in my hometown that is in his 80’s and either works out or plays tennis every day. He still looks great and regularly beats guys who are decades younger than he is on the court.
The point is that most of us have the means to live lives that are rich and relatively disease free if we undertook appropriate maintenance plans for our health. Vigorous exercise coupled with sound nutrition yields real, lifelong results. Will everyone enjoy perfect health? No. All of us age and dies eventually. There are still accidental injuries, infections and birth defects. But just imagine how many resources would be available to fight genetic disorders and childhood cancer if we didn’t have millions of people being treated for absolutely preventable heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Our nation would save billions of dollars and the bulk of the remaining expenditures could go to those who truly cannot help what has happened to them. This is where the health care debate should start and each of us can make a real change, one body at a time.