Unless you’re Scrooge McDuck, the Monopoly guy, or Jeff Bezos you’ve probably have had moments where you are concerned about your finances. Captain Obvious moment here, but everything continues to get more and more expensive. Whether it’s at the fuel pump, the grocery store, or tuition costs…..it all keeps going up. It is what it is, I suppose. And frankly, you have to eat and drive and keep your house warm. So we do what we have to do. So much of this is out of our control.
One place the cost of doing business continues to rise is healthcare even with health insurance. CBS news released a story this week, using analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation, stating that in 2018 a family of four spent $7,726 on healthcare which is up from $4,617 ten years ago. The analysis goes on to say that despite this significant jump in costs treatment outcomes have not gotten better. So basically, when it comes to healthcare, we are spending a whole lot more money and we are not getting anything in return. Obviously, this is a dismal picture. When you spend, I think most of us believe “you get what you pay for.” In our current healthcare system, it appears this is not the case, unfortunately.
Now, the cool thing here versus heating oil or a grocery bill is that when it comes to healthcare, we can actually control the cost more than we think. Not only can we do it for our individual budgets, but collectively if we make some changes we can benefit our national healthcare costs, as well! The thing is, these changes are more simple than you’d expect and also pretty obvious too, when you really think about it.
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Exercise: ok, movement improves everything. Full stop. Seriously, it increases life span, decreases disease risk, manages weight, improves mood, and even makes you more intelligent. It’s pretty amazing. It also can save a bunch of money. This is from the American Heart Association: in 2012 researchers looked at a survey of 26,000 Americans. Those who already had cardiovascular disorders and then met the recommended exercise guidelines saved $2500/year in healthcare costs versus those who didn’t meet the guideline standards. For those who didn’t already have cardiovascular disease, if they met the exercise guidelines, they’d save $500/year over their non exercising counterparts.
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Sleep: 7 to 9 hours. Make it happen! Researchers at the non-profit RAND Europe group looked at sleep deprivation and the results are startling. From a personal health perspective the researchers found that those who slept less than 6 hours per night had a 13% higher mortality rate risk then people who slept 7-9 hours. But it doesn’t stop there. Sleep actually plays a major role in economics. Sleep deprivation leads to an estimated loss of 1.2 million work days per year. This lack of sleep is costing us around $411 billion according to the researchers. That’s a staggering number.
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Healthy Eating: we all know that whole foods are a better choice, healthwise, then fast foods, but the financial benefit is bigger than you might imagine. Dr, Carolyn Scrafford presented research at the American Society for Nutrition in 2018. Her team used a measurement of healthy eating called the Healthy Eating Index (HEI). They found that the average American adult adheres to the HEI by about 60% but increasing that number by 20% would save our country $30-47 billion per year! Want to help in this fight? Increase your fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and focus on healthy fats such as olive oil.
We can’t always benefit our personal budgets and the national economy by our individual choices. Sometimes, stuff really is out of our hands. But when it comes to our health we can play a profound role in how much we spend and how our health will affect the national economy, simply by the choices we make.
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