The Healthcare Gap Widens

This past week the CDC announced that 40 percent of Americans will be obese in the next few years and that ten percent will be servely obese. Other studies show that those remaining fifty percent will be some variation of overweight. This is incredible that a whole nation will be "technically" unhealthy. This will either be a medical insurance underwriters paradise or the biggest health tsunami that will crash the system beyond years of repair. This is because healthy behavioral lifestyle habits(patterns) are not mandated in our daily life. Not even physical fitness is mandated in the majority of grade schools today and look where it has lead us, so, how would this same response of non-mandated health effect a nation? This is just the beginning of a ground swell of an exponential number of health problems that will begin to ensue from obesity including : heart disease, heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, diabetes, liver disease, respiratory disease(restrictive, obstructive types), gall bladder disease, endocrine dysfunctions especially those dealing with sexual maturity as well as high fats . Cancer will begin to soar higher than it ever has in any number of organs. In essence the nation will become virtually a sick nation. A new paradigm will have to shift to accept lower degrees of these diseases as the "new norm" such as the overweight or else a super-massive insurance payment for these chronic illness has to be instituted(this is what we are facing now). But, the real solution is prevention. Creating a healthy lifestyles pattern that includes the work , social , educational and community so that it works logistically and ergonomically to systems that we have up and running. Morning calesthinics with an orgnic breakfast before you walk, bike or carpool to work and school. a mid-day gym break or yoga and spa treatment with aromatherapy and treadmill before the lunch salad. Then, an after school team sport or after hours gym workout for emplyees. What health experts and behavioral authorities know is that probably any amount of dieting and exerce that has to be done to "completely" turn our health status around couldn't be done in the time to prevent a "health system crash" nor is everyone "financial" enough or have the leisure to do these things. Enter then the mandate. By mandating healthcare, you are placing personal responsibility squarely on the individual him/herself. If they do not "pay " into the systm they must "pay" a "penalty. A "win-win" situation in the short term. Now, on the surface this appears that it should answer all solutions. But, human beings aren't robots. Human beings like to have a "heart attack burger" once in a while, they may not go to the gym 2 or 3 times in a week and there are any number of reasons for them to get off schedule.The new healthcare system wants to mandate health by penalizing you if you don't participate, but behaviorist would prefer sanctioning the punishment not the reward. A human system has to have incentives for obtaining health behavior not just sanctions for participating.The health systems incentives are more guaranteed revenue and less disease. However, just making insurer make payments doesn't guarantee the health behevior of a subject,though it might accumulate temporary funding for bad healthy consequences which are cumulative. A real prevention program could divert the potential for early life or premature morbidity and mortality with built-in incentives. Recently, a real concerning matter for healthcare costs has also been brought to the fore front. At the beginning ot the new administration that healthcare was estimated to cost $1 Trillion dollars. Today it stands at $2.6 Trillion( over a ten year period). But, sources quote this at least what is paid on per annum for healthcare(this is even a conservative estimate). Earlier this year a rather disturbing figure touted by Representative Jeff Sessions(R, AL) shows that $17 Trillion in undisclosed amounts has been discovered for healthcare costs. This unsecure liability posese a very large funding gap. Time is of essence as more obesity-related chronic illnesses that are newly diagnosed continue to pile up and rack up the cost of health care in America. We haven't begun to discuss yet the other factors effecting healthcare costs such as drug costs, shortage of doctors, tort reform,cost of medical equipment and a rising ageing population of "Baby Boomers".