Before the federal government winds up blowing through trillions of dollars of taxpayer money to provide health care for Americans, we the people need to begin focusing on our own lifestyles first in order to maintain a healthy and productive existence living in the freest country in the world – while it lasts.
A lazy American walking their dog from a vehicle
I reported on a study recently that suggested obesity-related spending in America has soared to $147 billion, which is twice that of just a decade ago. In fact, research shows that obese people cost an average of $1,400 more per year for treatments than a normal weight person. These treatments include procedures to combat diabetes, heart disease and other side effects from leading an unhealthy, overweight lifestyle. 9.1 percent of all medical spending in the country, the study also said, is directly related to obesity-related medical procedures.
Americans are fatter and unhealthier than ever, and our politicians are responding by making it a responsibility of the government to magically fix our ever-aching ways. But health care costs will never improve until the American people address their own lifestyles firsthand rather than relying on politicians and the American taxpayer to do it for them through an expensive, inefficient and bureaucratic mess of a system fraught with long waiting lines and sub-par medical care.
Unfortunately, sedentary lifestyles are taught from an early age. Childhood obesity has tripled over the past quarter-century due to advancements in gaming technology, access to cable television and other stimuli that does not involve physical activity. Worse, parents are allowing and encouraging it to happen.
We dine at restaurants and easily overindulge on fatty, greasy foods. We park as close to mall entrances as we can as to avoid absolutely any unnecessary walking to the door. We will take the escalator upstairs rather than the stairwell, even though our legs work perfectly fine. We will drive the car one block down the street to hit the new ice cream shop that just opened rather than walking – past it to the nearest Subway restaurant for a healthier meal. We look towards miracle weight-loss pills and, when they don’t work, rationalize it by telling ourselves “I can’t lose weight”. Far too many of us find any possible way to avoid physical activity, and our expanding waste-lines are showing the ugly consequences of our laziness.
Whether or not the government provides health care for chronically overweight people, the cost of health care will remain the same, or increase, as Americans continue to ignore their own lifestyle choices and continue to lead lazy, motionless lives where a walk around the neighborhood or a trip to the gym is as unheard of as a liberal at a tea party. The choices that Americans make are the most significant influences over the cost of health care in our country, and the more we ignore it, the worst things are going to get.
Choices are far more important than many will let themselves accept. Some will chalk up their fattiness to a medical condition, or assume that their metabolism is just slower than other people’s. But that doesn’t give them a legitimate excuse not to exercise and eat healthy. In fact, just the opposite, it means those people need to work harder than the rest of us to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Getting and staying healthy not only improves life for them, but it also reduces their drain on society and relaxes some of the burden they would ordinarily require from health care. They spend less on their health care, Americans spend less on their health care, and everyone leads successful, normal lives.
As radio talk show host Neal Boortz wrote recently, “You get more of the behavior that you reward,” and that motto has never been truer than in our discussion of obesity. If you reward obese people with cheap access to health care – taxpayer funded health care – then you create a society where a pathetic, sluggish lifestyle is honored and accepted; and conversely, an active, healthy lifestyle is punished with the added responsibility of funding those who would stuff their faces with potato chips while Mr. Healthy peddles away on the stationary bike at the gym.
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