A Titanic Health Care Plan

The luxury cruise ship was outfitted with a gymnasium, a squash court, a Turkish bath, and an on-board swimming pool, justifying the ticket price of $4,350 for first class passage. What it did not have was a hull capable of withstanding an iceberg. And on April 14, 1912, the Titanic went down.

The health care reforms proposed by the administration and in Congress all aim to provide basic health care for the uninsured, an essential goal. But unhealthy federal policies have turned health care into a luxury, with no means of fending off the icebergs that lie dead ahead. Consider this:

• Even while our government is struggling to find ways to cover the costs of diabetes drugs and supplies--which typically cost between $3,000 and $5,000 for just one person with diabetes each year--it also pays out massive subsidies to the sugar industry. Junk food is made more affordable, and diabetes risk skyrockets.

• Even as we seek to cover the cost of cholesterol-lowering drugs--one Lipitor pill costs about $5--our government also subsidies the production of high-cholesterol meat and cheese products.

• As we gear up to help uninsured families get coverage for their children, government contracts ensure that school lunches are loaded with high-fat fare. More than 80 percent of schools serve too much high-fat food to comply with the federal government's own nutrition guidelines.

We pay to create health problems, and we pay again to treat them.

In 1909, when the construction of the Titanic began, the average American consumed about 150 pounds of meat per year. Today, that figure is over 200 pounds. A year's cheese consumption amounted to less than 4 pounds for the average person in 1909, but has reached nearly 33 pounds per person today.

We're wealthier than we were in 1909, and, collectively, we can afford a few luxuries. If our government wants to support these products with a billion dollars here and a billion there, we don't object. But then the real costs become clear. According to a recent report published by the American Diabetes Association, a person who eats meat or cheese daily is much more likely to be overweight, compared with a person who skips them altogether. And a meat-eater has double the risk of developing diabetes, compared to a person who avoids meat, and is more likely to develop cholesterol problems, heart disease, and hypertension, too.

So while we might be able to afford to buy unhealthful foods and to feed them to our families, the costs of the diseases that result are keeping members of Congress up at night and threaten to topple our economy. By 2017, about 20 cents of every dollar spent in the U.S. economy will be spent on health care, according to a recent Rand Corp. analysis.

While health care coverage should be viewed as a basic necessity, it has become a way of compensating for our diet excesses. It is a luxury of titanic proportions. Unless we reform not only health care, but also our health practices, we may find ourselves on a rapidly sinking ship.

Comments

[itbecomesyou]

I am a dietitian who works to improve the school lunch system, so I truly understand the irony of battling obesity among kids while feeding them subsidized meat and dairy products. The USDA has a huge conflict of interest - supporting giant agricultural industries (with our tax dollars) and simultaneously creating the dietary guidelines. You don't have to be a dietitian or even a grown up to look at a lunch tray and wonder who follows these guidelines if not the folks who wrote them? The health patterns we are establishing for these kids are criminal - most will pay with a poor quality of life, but we will all pay the financial penalty.

[odyssey58]

I don't believe that meat and dairy are the villains. Instead, I blame the obesity epidemic on consumption of grains, especially refined ones. I credit Drs. Sears ( The Zone) and Atkins for preventing diabetes for me. I was following a low-fat mostly vegetarian diet that was heavy on unrefined whole grains. I thought it was healthy but I was fat, tired, hungry and hypoglycemic. When I switched to low carb diet based on grass fed meat and dairy I lost weight and gained energy. I no longer have the shakes when I get hungry.

Yes, I believe that diet strongly affects our health and that the diets of most Americans is abysmal. The solution isn't more grain. It's less grain for animals and people. We need to stop ripping up the earth and spraying it with chemicals (which uses enormous amounts of fossil fuels) and put animals back on pasture where they belong.

[Soliel]

Dr. Barnard

THANK YOU for your common sense.

As someone who has to buy her own health care and who lives on a tight budget...I am very concerned about my future costs and if I can meet them. I would be a prime candidate, it may seem, to be all for governmental health care.

I am not.

I am not because whether we have to pay for it ourselves or pay for all of us collectively, it can (and will) bankrupt us unless we change our diets and habits. Western societies are getting diseases from rich foods. The diseases that are making our health care a fiscal nightmare.

I want to see all subsidies towards meat and dairy to stop and have people pay the true costs. Then, beans, grains and vegetables will be an attractive alternative.

[KristinNoelle]

Exactly. It's called moral hazard. When the costs of an individual's actions are spread out over an entire population not many people are willing to step up and take responsibility. Many people think "well, I have to pay in through my taxes so I might as well get my money's worth." Not a good idea.

[JShep]

The govt. may subsidise sugar, meat and cheese, but it does not force us to eat any of these products in excess. What ever happened to personal responsibility?? Per the CDC over 30% of the costs of Medicare and Medicaid are due to problems resulting from obesity alone. The main problem with our healthcare system is people just don't care about their own health.

[Soliel]

How can we create incentives for people to make better choices?

For one, we can stop all the billions of dollars going into industrial agriculture, the business that creates cheap food at a high price.

Then, natural, simple foods will be more appealing.

[KristinNoelle]

Don't you find it odd that the poorest people in our country are also the fattest? It is because these subsidies make bad food the most cost-effective way to feed a family.

[bioluminescence]

Yes. The problem is fat. Not fat in our bodies. Fat in the system. Americans do not have a monopoly on sedentary lifestyles and poor nutrition. But it does appear to have a monopoly on health care costs that are two to three times higher than comparable care elsewhere.

There are no patients in the U. S. health care system. Only customers.

[Leatherhelmet]

I see we are blaming fat people again. Fat people will not topple the economy. Excessive government programs might do it.

[PlaceboStudman]

You're right, health care IS a necessity and should be reserved for those who need it most. But, our society is too lazy, apathetic, and scared of change to face the fact that it does no one a bit of good to mask our misery behind a cheeseburger, bacon chili fries, or botox and rogaine.

Up until recently, I wasn't aware that Richard Simmons and Susan Powter had MDs, but apparently they must, because they certainly know how to treat obesity and obesity is a medical problem, right?

At least thats what people keep telling me

We must revert back to a society where medicine is medicine, and luxury is luxury. Sadly we can't seem to be able to tell the difference anymore

[KristinNoelle]

Richard Simmons and Susan Powter? Glad the flux capacitor in your Delorian is working. Next time you visit us from the 80's could you bring me a mixed tape of Queen's greatest hits? Thanks...oh, I'll need a tape player too!

[PlaceboStudman]

Richard Simmons and Susan Powter may be old and outdated, but they are well known for their work in weight loss and health management. I could have mentioned Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley or Suzanne Somers, because they are celebrities who are pushing for health management that has absolutely nothing to do with a doctor or medicine