It isn't nice these days to suggest that problems facing this nation are caused by individual's mistakes. After all, nothing really is anyone's fault anymore. Furthermore, if it isn't an individual's fault, then it's up to someone else (read: government) to fix it. For anyone who has an honest willingness to solve the problem and the desire to take a closer look, they'll notice this convoluted scam as to why our health care system is so broken.
Let's start with an undeniable fact: fat people spend need more health care. Being overweight causes so many health problems it's downright staggering. Just the sheer weight alone pushing down on the body can cause sleep apnea (pressure on the throat), hypertension (pressure on the arteries), and arthritis (pressure on the joints). Diabetes, a very common disease for the overweight, can cause a host of problems in and of itself. The extra sugar in the bloodstream not getting broken down in the muscless basically destroys the bloodstream. Blindness, amputations, and difficulty fighting infection, and impotency are a sample of the results. I could keep going. I've only gotten warmed up but you'd probably start reading before I'm finished.
Now, this all costs money to treat. Doctor visits, sugeries, medicines, procedures, medical equipment, etc. Let's lay down another undeniable fact: The cost of this just doesn't disappear, never to be seen again. It has to get paid for SOMEWHERE. Now, take any of the sampling of the disorders and diseases that obesity causes that I've listed and/or missed and add up how much it costs to treat.
Now multiply it by 198,000,000.
Bear in mind that the price that you put on treating a fat person may be too low. I know a person who is over 100 lbs overweight and I wouldn't be surprised if he costs his insurance over $40,000 a year. He's on at least six different drugs and goes to the doctors nearly every week. He's literally a ticking time bomb of medical maladaies. His son is the same way.
So, why's health care so expensive and why is it getting worse and worse? Simple: We as a nation are taxing it to the limits. Insurance operates a lot like a lottery. Everyone pays in, a few take out of it. It's a pool of money. Trouble is, what happens when everyone is constantly drawing out of it? Everyone has to pay in more or else the pool won't be sustainable. Well, that's what's happening. What's worse is everyone is trying to come up with a solution that tap dances around the problem without solving it.
A true solution to this problem is for America to change their lifestyles. We eat too much bad food in huge quantities and exercise too little. It's not only killing us but it's going to break us finanically. Any other solution (read: universal health care) won't solve the problem. It will just shift it from one part of our economy to another. Besides there is another flaw in this thinking that we need universal health care. Being overweight is a mistake that many people make. This mistake is like any other one: If you don't pay for it personally, you'll keep making it.
Something has got to give though. This obesity epidemic is going to crush us, if not physically then economically. It's not going to get solved by treating it as a problem caused by anyone else other than each and every overweight person in this country.
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