WHY DOES YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE COST SO MUCH?
The CDC recently reported that 22% of adults have some type of disability that affects their daily life. This has a total cost of $400 billion per year. They also reported that up to 40% of the deaths each year in the United States are from preventable causes.
Let those numbers soak in for a minute. One could reason that this burden could cause health insurance cost to go up.
What if we could cut the emotional and financial costs of that 40% of deaths each year or cut the $400 billion spent on disability costs each year. This would free up a lot of resources that could go toward reducing costs of healthcare elsewhere.
We cannot take away treatment from people living with disabling conditions or preventable diseases, but we can make it a goal to reduce the need for those service in the future. Preventative care could greatly reduce the financial burden of the healthcare industry. In the long term this could greatly cut costs.
In a perfect world doctors would be rewarded for how healthy their patients stayed instead of by how many service they could bill for. This model of healthcare is certainly being experimented with, but will probably take some time to fully implement in the United States.
Until changes are made, it is up to us to reduce the burden on the healthcare system by investing in our own health. Instead of expecting our health insurance companies to keep us healthy, we should be willing to hold ourselves responsible. We should do everything possible to improve our health and reduce our risk for preventable diseases. This would mean saving our health insurance for what it has basically become, catastrophic coverage. Many people have resorted to using chiropractors, health coaches or nutritionist as a resource when they decide to take this task on. This allows them to have some guidance.
Maybe our children or their children will be able to see a day where health insurance premiums and deductibles decrease.
