Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Thursday, January 22, 2004

Counting the Cost

In an article today on CNN, I found out the CDC has had part of the cost of obesity calculated up. Right now it costs every American taxpayer about $175 per annum to treat obesity related conditions through the Medicare and Medicaid programs. It costs me $175 a year to pay for the completely lifestyle related choices of other people just through the government. The total cost is about double this but isn't paid for in taxes. I assume I pay for that in my insurance premiums. So my bill totals to about $350 per year or $700 for my household. This doesn't count the intangibles such as lost productivity in businesses due to the illnesses, the lowered quality of living and the unhappiness that they cause and the like. And that's just one of the four major lifestyle choice illness groups. What would happen if that money the government spent on treating obesity related illness went to other health care prioirties, such as insuring uninsured children? In the mantra of "Think Globally, Act Locally" maybe those who call for the government to get involved in insuring more people should first look to their own lifestyle and the impact it has on their health and then look at the lifestyles of those with whom they influence prior to saying that the government should take more of my money. If we think that the government is the solution, instead of opting for universal health care, maybe we should look into mandatory diet and exercise programs...

The article also went on to note that in data from 2000, 64% of Americans were either overweight or obese. I think more people need bikes...a lot more people...

I can't help but think what the response would be if 64% of American had contracted HIV or if they we're diagnosed with a form of cancer. As I've said before, we may think that the consequences of these sorts of choices are individual but as long as we choose to share the burdens of society as a community the consequences of our choices may not be. If 64% of all people had HIV, we'd be spending many more billions of dollars of the government's tax dollars to find a cure. If we decided to spend a couple of billion to institute mandatory exercise and diet regimes the populace would scream about invasion of individual rights. Yet no one cries out when the government mandatorily takes money from their wages to pay for other people's bad choices. Some food for thought.

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