<p>Ok busdriver11…</p>
<p>I found the site for people without preconditions…</p>
<p>Per the CDC: </p>
<p>80% of heart disease and Type II diabetes and 40% of cancers could be prevented by exercising more, eating less and not smoking.</p>
<p>Approx. 75% of all healthcare spending is due to preventable diseases.</p>
<p>So don’t scream at your insurance companies, doctors, hospitals, unnecessary tests, medical mistakes or drug companies about the high cost of your health insurance.</p>
<p>Scream at your fellow man.</p>
<h1>544 Awesome post.</h1>
<p>No…</p>
<p>You can blame your fellow man and everybody else TatinG mentioned if you are looking for blame. We are not not talking about Mutual exclusivity here.</p>
<p>The biggest, by far, way to cut down on health care costs and by extension health insurance costs would be if everyone exercised more, ate less and stopped smoking. </p>
<p>It’s too bad that under ACA, AFAIK, those factors aren’t considered in pricing insurance. I would rather not be in a risk pool with smokers and the obese, just as I am in a safe driver risk pool.</p>
<p>post #544: I would change eating less to having a healthy diet. Add a weekly glass of bubbly too. I heard it reduces age-related memory loss.</p>
<p>^here’s what’s wrong with that, Tatin–lots of people aren’t risky even if they fit your profile, at least with weight. my weight puts me in a definite overweight profile. I exercise regularly, eat well, and have outstanding numbers–BP, blood sugar, cholesterol–all at the levels most 55 year olds only dream of. What I got, basically, is fat legs (sounds like a Rod Stewart song)–probably a congenital condition, according to my DR. so please don’t label me and throw me into the risky end of the pool. there are lots of “obese” individuals who exercise, eat well, and are healthy by all medical standards.</p>
<p>The CDC figures aren’t talking about overweight (by whatever measure) people who are healthy. It’s that those with heart disease and Type II diabetes, which account for a huge percentage of health care costs are much more likely to be overweight. Just as there are some smokers who never get lung cancer, most people who do get lung, throat, etc. cancers are smokers.</p>
<p>^^Agree with garland. Plus, not everybody who is overweight is so because they are lying on the couch eating chocolate all day. My sister eats a very reasonable diet, and exercises hard for two hours every morning…and cannot get below 210 pounds to save her life. Has battled with this for years, and it’s not sloth that got her there. Shoot, my gym declared me “borderline obese” according to their standards, at 5’5" and 130 lbs.</p>
<p>My wife weighs 100 lbs maybe and her HC costs are off the chart. I am fat and have zero HC costs we are both in our mid 50’s. </p>
<p>I have had insurance since I am 21 and in those 34 years I may have been to the doctor 20 times. I have had all the necessary screenings. She is to a doctor at least 20 times a year- all necessary. If she was not my spouse she would have either been dead for lack of care or bankrupt from loss of money due to her health conditions and how it impacted her ability to work. </p>
<p>Bad luck with your health and proper care should not be subject to how lucky you are in having insurance. We need a system that is not based on our current model.</p>
<p>Okay, so you’re all saying that the CDC is wrong? </p>
<p>As I said before just because some smokers don’t get cancer and live to be 90, does not mean that smoking is healthy. The same goes for obesity and all the anecdotes cited don’t change that.</p>
<p>The anecdotal exception people are the ones who should be the maddest about those CDC stats. By that, I mean the 20-25% who have non-preventable diseases and conditions. Maybe they would be cured by now if so many medical resources were not being sucked up by the preventable conditions.</p>
<p>Well, if I had to pay for my insurance, I’d like to be in a pool with just Japanese, thin, non smokers with no family history of disease…who exercise regularly, are wealthy, and eat perfectly. Unfortunately I can’t pick that pool, so what’s the point?</p>
<p>My point is that not everyone who is overweight is unhealthy, and some character flaw has not gotten them there. Large numbers of people are in that situation, so why would they be put in a high risk pool, and held up to blame and scorn?</p>
<p>No, you cannot pick your pool now, so it becomes even more important that everyone in it work harder to be healthier.</p>
<p>Nobody gets out of here alive. End of life care is the expensive care. It uses up the most medical dollars. </p>
<p>That’s not going to matter if it is end of life care for people who get sick in their 60s from bad choices or people who end up with dementia at 85 who made all good health choices. In the end, people get sick and die, and at the end, that’s when the money is being spent.</p>
<p>What I’d like to see is a breakdown of how much is being spent in the medicare age range, per capita, and how much beneath that range, per capita. Also a total on those numbers, too.</p>
<p>I think we all mean the morbidly obese, when it’s not attributable to something outside the patient’s control.</p>
<p>No. Not everyone who is overweight is unhealthy and not every smoker will get cancer or emphysema either. But those are the outliers. </p>
<p>Look I know how hard it is to lose weight. I just got back from a rugged backpacking trip in the mountains, pounding out 25 miles with a 20 pound pack on my back and didn’t lose a pound. Still I think I worked my heart muscle, my lungs, my legs and overall I am healthier for the effort. </p>
<p>There needs to be some sort of ‘carrot’ approach in this country to exercising, eating well and not smoking. No one likes “Nanny Bloomberg” lecturing them on soda or taking the stairs. I don’t think the ‘stick’ approach works. There has to be some sort of reward, like a lower insurance premium for keeping healthy. </p>
<p>But I don’t think the ACA does that.</p>
<p>Why? The more we harp on keeping healthy, the more we have the food police, the more obesity we get.</p>
<p>I just want to be in the risk pool who gets left alone to do as I please. I’m very fit. I eat what I want. I want to be left alone.</p>
<p>I never cared about money, but this ACA where everyone gets to look into the health choices of everyone else and make a judgement, makes me glad I can afford to do what I want. </p>
<p>We will go through all of this, and then, in the end, the real, true zombie move is going to be the humongous population walking around with althzeimers and dementia, and being billed to be “kept alive.” Define alive.</p>
<p>I agree with poet</p>
<p>There are lower premiums for those that are healthy. Buy the bronze plan.</p>