Healthcare Problem vs. Diet/Excercise Problem

Every industrialized nation except for the US has a single payor system.

I read somewhere that something like 10% or 20% of health care expenses are related to us generally not being healthy.  So it is a significant chunck of the problem but not the only problem that needs to be solved. 

In our current system you're still screwed if you can't afford insurance but get hit by a truck.  Doesn't matter much if you're healthy or not, you'll still have to declare bankruptcy if you survive.....

Brian

I did a research paper in undergrad about childhood obesity in Europe vs. the US. The rest of the industrialized world is quickly becoming just as fat as we are. I studied abroad in Australia and they were extremely worried about a growing obesity epidemic in their country. So the idea that only Americans are fat is eroding away.

But to answer the question. I think it's both. I don't think that one can be taken into account without the other and that they are both related concepts. I think that obesity taxes the health care system and drives costs up for everyone but also that the system itself is being taxed because of the baby boomer generation beginning to be able to take medicare benefits. That's the simplified version of my viewpoint but good question IMO.

Edited by crazyquick23 2010-03-03 7:15 PM

Not really making a comment on the OP, but ....so? It's a fallacy.
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/appeal-to-common-practice....

Just because someone else does it, does not make it any more right, better or correct. It should be able to stand on it's own merits.

diet/exercise is a huge component...but how do you enforce it?  Ya can't. 

unfortunately, it's not the only contributing factor...there are no easy answers to solving the healthcare crisis.  We have a lot of unhealthy folks living very long lives, and the end-of-life expenses are through the roof too.

I think that this is a much deeper problem than diet/exercise v. health care insurance etc.

When I lived in Britain, I did an insane amount of walking. Insane. I lived in a major metropolitan area in NI and Scotland. Everything was accessible to pedestrians and cyclists. I could walk or ride my bike or walk to a nearest train station or to a bus stop and get places. My doctor, a major museum, a major hospital, my university, a public library, a major park, two large grocery stores, a green grocer and a slew of newsagents were within a mile of home in both places I lived in Glasgow. It was the fact that walking, rather than driving (or taking the bus in most instances) was really the fastest/most efficient way to get around. The design of the city and the infrastructure was really set up to make things easy to get to.

Where my parents live in Pittsburgh, there are no sidewalks. No bike lanes. Even the shoulders of the road are pretty non-existent. Even though there is a grocery store less than a mile away, I wouldn't dare walk it because of the way people drive on the road. There's no pedestrian safety at all. It's the same where my brother lives, in a more upscale suburb. The things that could contribute to us getting fit or being fit or being more aware of the ways in which we use fuel are pretty removed from us.

Even in my little corner of the woods, there's one very scary major bridge that I must cross in order to get to get to the other side of the river so that I can go to the market, go to the city, go to work, etc. It's do-able on the bike, but only because people have tramped a little path into the median of the shoulder. But because of the snow, and the fact that the city hasn't cleared the snow on any of the bridges, that is impassable on foot or on bike. It's just a shame. I think that people would enjoy the city and their neighborhoods more if it was more pedestrian friendly, I think that they'd take a bit more pride in where the lived, and I think they'd have a little more pride in themselves and learn that exercise is pretty easy once you get started.

So perhaps my suggestion is a bit too broad. Make cities and suburbs walk-able. Put things in reach of the population. Make walking/biking/public transportation commutes a common thing. Make community markets and community centers (pools, libraries, etc) a central part of life. And while this isn't going to single-handedly solve the "obesity epidemic"...I doubt it would hurt.

I think it is both. I also predict more and more requirements on lifestyle based on the fact that more and more health care will be provided by the government.