The Truth About Healthcare Reform
Hi freinds, this is an extract from Doctors Furhman blogs talking about healthcare reform. Basically says that until people do not improve their lifestyles, meaning eating habbits and increase their activity levels, the reform is not going to do much.
Here is the text, “Healthcare reform is irrelevant until Americans improve their lifestyles.”
The fact is, our healthcare costs are out of control because the diet and lifestyle that has become the societal norm in this country causes disease. As Ms. Pirello mentioned in her article:
“We are willing to tolerate this revolutionized food because it’s cheap. But it comes at a high price to our health. We spend less on food today than any other people at any other time in recorded history. And the less we spend on food, the more we spend on health care.”1
Here are some numbers:
- Overweight and obesity rates are at an all time high – 73% of Americans are either overweight (38.8%) or obese(34.2%).2 In 1980, 15% of adults were obese – over the past 30 years,that number has more than doubled.3
- According to the CDC, U.S. obesity-related health costs totaled $117 billion in 2000, and if current trends continue, that figure is projected to reach $344 billion per year by 2018.3,4
- Coronary heart disease costs are estimated at $177 billion for 2010, costs for stroke at $74 billion, costs for hypertension at $77 billion. 5
- Health insurance premiums have gone up 131% in the last 10 years.6