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For once there was good news this week regarding health in America. ABC News reported the latest findings by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, revealing that death rates in the United States from heart disease and stroke are in the biggest and fastest decline ever recorded.

And it's all thanks to prescription drugs, which are keeping us alive, but also keeping affordable health insurance out of our reach.

Why? Well, Americans are surviving these diseases, but not because we are healthier. In fact, rates for obesity and type 2 diabetes are actually on the rise, and are showing up in Americans at ever younger ages. What's happening is that as we get sick, we have a host of prescription drugs to fall back on that will extend our lives.

But this means that we're looking at gains achieved through the treatment of disease, not through its prevention. This is why health insurance rates are so high; we are unhealthy to begin with, we get sick, and then we need expensive medications to save us.

The real way to save money, prevent disease, and lower health insurance costs is to focus on the prevention of disease in the first place. This is why it's so important to go to yearly checkups, and to make healthy lifestyle decisions that make health insurance a useful way to protect your health, but not the only way to do so.