Burdening Health Insurance and Growing Out of ControlMay 2008
When we think of worldwide disease, we think about the big killers like HIV/Aids, Malaria, and even tuberculosis. However, according to the World Health Organization the chronic diseases now associated with the Western lifestyle - those same diseases that are burdening our
health insurance system - are now the chief cause of global death.
That's right, we're killing ourselves faster than standard communicable diseases can do the job for us. Is it no wonder then that medical insurance costs as much as it does? Or, that those who don't have coverage have shorter life spans than those of us who do?
Frighteningly, it isn't just the wealthy nations that are killing themselves. Poorer countries are also seeing a dangerous rise in diabetes, obesity, heart disease and stroke.
One solution has been touted as a health insurance solution, particularly in California. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to make medical insurance less expensive to those individuals who made healthier lifestyle decisions, such as keeping their weight at a healthy level, keeping cholesterol and blood pressure low, and avoiding dangerous behaviors like smoking.
The rationale is that those people who will cost their
medical insurance company less money shouldn't have to pay the same premiums as those who likely will.
But many people argue that this would only cause discrimination against overweight people, who now constitute more than half of the U.S. population.
Facts on:
Chronic Diseases
Did you know...
Chronic illnesses like diabetes and heart disease are set to overtake communicable disease as the leading killer of human beings, worldwide?
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Furthermore, by making it harder for less healthy people to afford health insurance, those individuals who need medical guidance the most aren't going to get it. After all, doctors and other medical personnel are the best qualified to advise on how to change lifestyle behaviors that could later lead to the onset of chronic disease.
The solution isn't going to be an easy one, but as more and more people suffer from preventable, chronic disease, deciding how to manage our health care system is going to become an absolute imperative.
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