The rising cost of health insurance has spiraled out of control. While obesity seems to be a huge contributing factor there are several other reasons this is happening. Abuse of the current healthcare system has also caused the cost to increase.
Obesity causes heart disease, high blood pressure and contributes to diabetes. If you have a heart attack then you’ll be rushed to the hospital and the bill can be in the ball park of $80,000 and sometimes higher. If you get diabetes because you are obese and don’t take care of yourself then it’s likely you’ll end up on dialysis.
Dialysis is a costly treatment. These individual treatments can run approximately $3000 each. Of course, we all know how health care prices can fluctuate from one medical provider to the next. Once you are on dialysis you are on it for life unless you can get a new kidney. These treatments are necessary three times per week. If you do the math a person receiving dialysis would need 156 treatments per year costing about $468,000. That doesn’t include any other medical treatment they need.
Another reason for the high cost of health insurance is the high cost of health care. Health care costs are driven up from hospitals purchasing expensive equipment. While some of the equipment is necessary, some of it is not. However, our country boasts we have the best health care in the world and that is why rich people from other countries come here for important surgeries.
Health care is also costly because of people who don’t pay or neglect their medical bills. When a person has an $80,000 heart attack and doesn’t have health insurance and they refuse to apply for charity or have the money and just won’t pay, then that cost becomes the burden of others. The hospital is a business and when they don’t get the $80,000 they are owed that money has to be made up elsewhere. That is why we pay $10 for an aspirin or $80,000 for a heart attack. Lack of payment causes inflation.
With our fabulous health care people are living longer. If you survive that $80,000 heart attack chances are you aren’t going out jogging the next day. You will run up health care bills with doctors, blood tests, lab-work and and endless list of health care. If you have insurance then your insurance is paying a lot of money for your care. Most people will not change their habits so their health will continue to get worse. Which follows, they will have more medical problems and more health care costs.
Finally, health insurance costs have risen out of control because of greed. Insurance companies are in it to make a profit. While they do negotiate contracts with the medical providers to save money they still have hefty fees to pay. We need to remember that insurance companies are in it to make money or they wouldn’t be in business. As long as the insurance companies can justify their rate increases we will continue to see them rise.