Thread: impact on healthcare

It is believed that health care is in need of reform. I Don't think this will help.I think what we need is reform on americas appetite for overindulgence.How much of an impact on healthcare can be attributed to overindulgence of alcohol,tobacco,fatty and sugary foods.Coupled with the fact that most americans don't exercise their bodies.Myself being one of them.Curbing our appetite will never happen but if the government were able to do it wouldn't that have a better chance of controlling impact of health care costs on the economy than trying to whatever they are trying to do?What are your thoughts on this?

Originally Posted by spanx

It is believed that health care is in need of reform. I Don't think this will help.I think what we need is reform on americas appetite for overindulgence.How much of an impact on healthcare can be attributed to overindulgence of alcohol,tobacco,fatty and sugary foods.Coupled with the fact that most americans don't exercise their bodies.Myself being one of them.Curbing our appetite will never happen but if the government were able to do it wouldn't that have a better chance of controlling impact of health care costs on the economy than trying to whatever they are trying to do?What are your thoughts on this?

you can't change people's habits with laws..Also the food industry is mega billion industry, I doubt it will revert back from processed foods and corn syup, to all natural and sugar.
I agree that people over eat and overindulge, but its pretty much a habit now. The way of life also contributes a lot, more home entertainment and computerization leads to more sedentary life, and obesity.

i agree that we as a whole in this country are just plain fat. we need some self discipline. BUT we never, never, ever want any type of government program involved.(it has to be done on our own) every time politicians get involved with anything we are gonna get screwed as they cannot do any program correctly. they have blown it on medicaid, medicare, war on poverty, cash for clunkers, prescription drugs, you name it and they mess it up. we need to be self reliant and not depend on big brother for anything or we can only lose.

We don't need reform eh?

I was just over at another site I visit and one of the regulars announced he had just been diagnosed with advanced Prostate Cancer. He has no health insurance. Just being tested and diagnosed he has run through a substantial amount of his savings and is now selling everything he owns to get the money to save his life. He doesn't qualify for welfare or other programs.

Tell him we don't need health reform or maybe after he has sold everything and is living in his car he can beg on the streets or at his church. That's America.

When I made my original post I was trying to get across that we bring the high costs upon ourselves.I believe that if we had been living healthier lifestyles all along then the health care costs we see today would not exist.How much of the overall toll on the hospitals can be attributed to overweight,tobacco,alcohol for example.Higher hospital costs mean higher ins costs and denials for coverage.I am sorry to hear about your friend but I believe america has brought these problems upon themselves by lack of discipline.You can blame the ins company but I blame our way of life that we have become accustomed to.

Originally Posted by spanx

When I made my original post I was trying to get across that we bring the high costs upon ourselves.I believe that if we had been living healthier lifestyles all along then the health care costs we see today would not exist.How much of the overall toll on the hospitals can be attributed to overweight,tobacco,alcohol for example.Higher hospital costs mean higher ins costs and denials for coverage.I am sorry to hear about your friend but I believe america has brought these problems upon themselves by lack of discipline.You can blame the ins company but I blame our way of life that we have become accustomed to.

Well, lets take your argument to the locical conclusion that everything someone in authority deems dangerous should be made illegal. No guns-how many are shot and wounded by guns, no cars-how many are maimed and injured in accidents, no alcohol-a big no no, no knives of any kind-how many are injured by knives in the home and outside. Of course close down all the fast food and donut joints in America. We could go on and on.

Well what do you have? We could all be living under muslim law like the Taaliban want.

i am sorry to hear about your friend, i do have a heart. what i was trying and maybe not to successful to say is we need to first take care of ourselves without govt intervention. yes health care costs need to be reined in, not by politicians but by us. without sounding too heartless, you say your friend has spent a lot of his savings, why did he not buy insurance before hand and keep it in place? lots of folks opt not to purchase insurance and hope they can get by and it does not always work out that way, they get sick. i make sure to keep some type of coverage at all costs so i will not also get caught up with some serious ailment and lose everything.

With the greatest respect to your friend, but why does he not have health care coverage? When I left college I got a job selling cars to have health insurance while waiting to go to med school. I heard a truck driver making $60K complaining on TV because his insurance costs $8K a year. Well sometimes sacrifices must be made. The new plan intends to cut doctors pay essentially which with my debt, I completely oppose. If anything insurance is a multi-billion industry that should be required to make less profits because the newest generation of doctors are making less. Prostate cancer is horrible, and your friend could go to any number of academic indigent hospitals and get his care as many people do. I personally pay about $2800/year and double that because my school matches it and I am single. Besides I have heard people get upset about paying for insurance that live in $500K homes and drive new SUV's. All this is to say, does your friend choose not to pay for coverage, or was it truly to expensive? Either way, I feel sorry for him, but I have friends too that don't have coverage also, but they chose professions without benefits and were perfectly capable of going to college (tuition free in Georgia if a student works hard) and getting a job with benefits.
Government is not the answer to this problem. Besides if welfare was cut about 90% and most of the federal government was cut about 90% then the US would be a better place. FOr those who forget, the country is the United States, therefore put the power back into the States hands and not a bunch of corrupt congressmen who could care less about you (and I mean both Republicans and Democrats).

amen, well spoken and true