Kelli’s Health Plan

Dear Obama, I have a new health care bill for you. 

You can qualify for my government aided health insurance if you meet these three simple criteria:

1. You do not smoke
2. You exercise for 30 minutes 5 days a week
3. You are within your healthy BMI range (which will be improved by my BMI technician people – because right now, I don’t think it’s as accurate as it could be)

I also have a little proposal for how we will pay for this new health care plan.  In West Virginia they have what is called the “Pop Tax”.  It is a one cent tax on soda pop.  This is a small tax that is not noticed by consumers but ends up bringing in millions of dollars to the state every year.  West Virginia University has many buildings that have been built completely with the funds from the Pop Tax.  Think what we could do if there was a one cent tax on junk food, pop, and cigarettes?  These are the main causes for so many of our health problems.  They should be responsible for paying for the problems.  In fact, yesterday I read an article that totally supported my idea.

It said, “Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote a commentary calling for taxes on sugary drinks and junk food, zoning restrictions on fast-food outlets around schools and bans on advertising unhealthy food to children.”

Brilliant.  While I was teaching junior high I was surprised to learn how many of my students spent their “lunch money” on pop and a candybar.  Nutritional value = zero.  We should be giving our kids better options.

 

Read the following article, written by yours truly, to learn more about my health plan.

I can tell you this: most of the problems with the health of the American people is our own individual fault.  We have got to be willing to make some changes. 

You can see in the graph below that 50% of deaths after infancy are the result of our lifestyles.

 

According to Dr. Delos Cosgrove, the CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, “Three things -- smoking, diet, and lack of exercise -- cause 40% of premature deaths in the U.S. They contribute to 70% of the chronic diseases, things like emphysema and heart disease. And that's 75% of the cost of health care. It's huge!”  And those are all things WE can change.

So I want to talk about those three lifestyle factors: smoking, diet, and exercise – the three things that will qualify you for my health insurance.

1. NO SMOKING

Check out this chart from Jared’s medical school lecture.  The top two contributors to premature death are tobacco and physical inactivity/diet.  The crazy thing is these are two things that are easily in our control!

This article from cnn.money.com is really interesting.  You should check it out.  This hospital, the Cleveland Clinic, in Ohio no longer hires smokers.  They do a nicotine test along with the other drug tests.  This hospital also offers free smoking cessation classes.  Their CEO, Dr. Cosgrove (mentioned above), is a former surgeon and knows the dangers of smoking.  If we are to improve the health of our community, it has to start with the health care providers.

This picture below is of two identical twins in their mid fifties.  The twin on the left was never a smoker and was not exposed to second-hand smoke.  The twin on the right has a 5 year history of smoking (only 5 years!).  But look at what smoking does to your skin.  Not only does smoking make you look worse, it shortens your life by around 10 years.

In the picture below, the identical twin on the left lived in Florida and smoked, while her twin on the right lived in Minnesota and did not smoke.

I won’t put any pictures of the nasty cancers you can get from smoking because hopefully we all know how bad it is for us.

2. DIET and LACK of EXERCISE

Dr. Cosgrove stated that “[Obesity] accounts for 10% of the cost of health care in the U.S. -- we will never be able to control the cost of health care until we begin to control the epidemic of obesity. Two-thirds of the U.S. is overweight, and one-third is obese. We are the fattest nation in the world. Our rate of obesity is going up so much that probably half the U.S. will be obese in the next 20 years.”

The Cleveland Clinic mentioned above has taken out all trans fats from their cafeteria.  They took all the fryers out of the kitchen.  They got rid of candy bars and pop from the vending machines.  Next they gave their employees free Curves memberships, access to their hospital gyms, and pedometers.  In the first year they lost 120,000 pounds as a whole.  In Utah, Nebo School District also worked to improve the health of their employees.  They  had health challenges each month and if we met the challenge we were given rewards and put in the drawing for a pair of running shoes.  If every employer would offer things similar to this, their insurance costs would go down because their employees would be healthier.

DIABETES

Now on to diabetes.  We all know that there are two types of diabetes:

• Type 1 – insulin dependent
• Type 2 – non-insulin dependent - “The disease is strongly genetic in origin but lifestyle factors such as excess weight, inactivity, high blood pressure and poor diet”

In one of Jared’s classes he was shown some data from a test that showed if people with Type 2 diabetes exercised 30 minutes daily for just one week, it brought their diabetes under control just as well as medication would.  According to this article and also this article (and many others), people who are borderline diabetes can greatly reduce their chances of becoming diabetic through regular exercise and weight loss.

The problem is, people aren’t motivated to exercise, they don’t want to change their lives.  They want the cure-all pill. 

DEPRESSION

Another study showed that regular exercise has a nearly identical affect on depression as medication.  In the graph below depression levels before treatment are shown in orange and after treatment in teal.  Notice that exercise lowered depression levels nearly as much as medication.

I know one big problem is that people say, “I don’t have time to exercise.”  In one of Jared’s lectures he learned that instead of exercising for 30 minutes straight every day, you can exercise for at least 10 minutes at a time, as long as it adds up to 30 minutes total a day – and it will have the same affect on your health as exercising for 30 minutes straight.  So park your car at the back of the Walmart parking lot or take the stairs instead of the elevator.  Every little bit helps.

The unfortunate thing is that people don’t want to have to work for better health.  They want a pill that will fix their problems - a pill that will make them lose weight while they still eat the same foods and sit on their duff watching tv – an ab stimulator machine that you can put on your stomach and it will work the muscles for you, you don’t have to do anything.  In addition, junk food has big, expensive advertisements, while no one advertises for fruits and vegetables.  Eating healthy, fresh foods requires preparation (more work).  Plus, eating a healthy diet can be more expensive – Ramen Noodles are dirt cheap. 

SO WHAT’S THE POINT?

Only we can improve our health.  Only we can make decisions each day that take us closer to our goals.  Only we can choose to eat right.  Only we can lower the percentage of obese individuals in America.  It has to start with us.  With one person.  What are you going to do?  I know I’m going to do something hard – earn my good health.