Published: July 16, 2009 08:23 pm      

Here’s another view of U.S. health care costs

As I am writing this column, getting some kind of new health care bill through Congress seems uncertain, despite popular support. The members of Congress receive a fair amount of campaign contributions from lobbyists, drug companies and labor unions.

As has been mentioned a number of times, Americans pay about 50 percent more per capita for health care than the No. 2 country, yet our life expectancy falls behind over a dozen industrialized countries. At the current rate of increase in health costs, in only a few years, health care will comprise a quarter of the U.S. economy (versus 18 percent currently). But there are ways for arresting the growing costs of health care that are not mentioned in the media.

First consider individual Americans. Food costs in the U.S. as a percent of family income are less than most other industrialized countries. So most of us can get plenty of food among all the different choices in our stores.

Television has many shows celebrating food preparation, how to run a restaurant and where to go to get the most exotic treats in many cities. It's hard to watch these programs without snacking. So the relatively low costs of food in the U.S. and its glorification on television has led to the average daily American food and drink intake being about 1,000 Kilocalories (diet calories) more than the global average.

Every so often, we are warned about different food threats through pesticides, industrial chemicals from imported foods, salmonella, swine or bird flu and E Coli. These threats receive much media coverage, yet most people become ill due to regular flu, hospital infections, falling, respiratory difficulties — things that are not spotlighted in the media.

All these media warnings have caused most of us to ignore admonitions on what's best to eat for our health. Most of us have had family members with serious illnesses (cancer, heart disease, diabetes). Most of these illnesses can be avoided by dietary restrictions, but to some, that takes all the fun out of eating!

But if we want to keep out of the hospital and avoid running up a big bill, these limits on the amount of foods and types of food can save a great deal of health care money and most important, keep you healthy. As a personal example, two of my relatives died of colon cancer so I have been always concerned about this happening to me.

My response? I make sure that I ingest a lot of fiber each day, about three times the average American fiber intake (25 grams). I also take a Selenium pill each day to lessen the possibility of a recurrence of bladder cancer that I had 29 years ago. So to keep healthy, don't overeat (to avoid diabetes type II), shun saturated fats and trans fats (to minimize heart disease) and consume plenty of fruits and vegetables (to decrease one's odds of getting cancer).

Second, consider the limited choices we have regarding health insurance. Some health plans are quite comprehensive but also very expensive.

Being a Maryland State employee, I pay about half the costs of my health plan and the state picks up the other half. (If a bill requiring taxes on the state contribution to my insurance is passed, I will be glad that my tax dollars will be going to those who have no present health insurance.)

But consider car insurance; there are a number of different options regarding coverage and a variety of costs. Recently I hit a deer on Interstate 68 and had my car repaired. My insurance didn't cover the costs of a rental car so I got rides while my car was in the shop.

I could have had a more expensive policy that would have covered a rental vehicle. Why not have health insurance that is a la carte such as car insurance? One could choose to have cancer coverage and/or heart disease coverage, etc. If an individual was past child bearing ago, the pregnancy coverage could be omitted.

Also the drug coverage could be limited to medications for serious ailments such as diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic pain, etc. or a broader (more expensive) policy that would include tranquillizers as well as oral contraceptives. If some new condition arose, then the insurance coverage could be expanded (for additional cost).

This kind of insurance would allow lower income families to have some limited policy that is affordable, rather than no policy at all. Hopefully, if a person's health care policy didn't cover heart disease (ex. paying for bypass surgery) that person would be more motivated to limit his/her risks to heart disease by careful exercising, keeping one's body fat percent down and meditating to reduce one's stress level.

Early in the week, the moon is at too low an angle to the sun to be seen. On July 24th (this coming Friday), the moon should be visible as a slender crescent low in the western dusk. On the following two days, the moon will appear underneath the planet Saturn low in the 9:15 p.m. western dusk.

The two brightest stars seen in the evening sky currently are golden Arcturus, high in the west and white-blue Vega high in the east.

Bob Doyle invites comments or questions from readers; call him at (301) 687-7799 or rdoyle@frostburg.edu .