Roger Fredinburg has an idea to lower health care costs:
Watching the "Great Debate" over medical insurance, rising medical costs and ever-broadening government control, I am reminded of some interesting facts, the details of which are not evident in the public or political discussion.
I thought we ought to at least review them before the "rulers" of "Amerika" completely destroy the republic.
Have you asked questions like:
- What is the cost of substance abuse on the medical system?
- What are the medical costs of sexual deviance and promiscuity?
- What's the price of gluttony?
- How about laziness, slothfulness, sedentary lifestyles, etc. – what is the cost?
- And what is the cost of unwed childbirth?
- What is the cost of poor diet, bad attitudes, fraud and basic neglect?
It might sound a bit old-fashioned, but there is a best-selling book out there that has a prescription for clean, healthy living that pretty much covers the basics on health, diet, relationships, attitudes, moral behavior and even a little about sex, sexuality, child raising and self-control. You can find it in any bookstore – it's known as the Holy Bible. I understand it's available in English now.
I am struggling to understand why people pick on smokers and fat folks but leave the fornicators, substance abusers and perverts out of the debate on medical and insurance costs that are rising unnecessarily in America.
I have attached the results from a government study done in 1992. I think you will agree it is our moral compass needing change, not the medical system.
If you extrapolate over time the compounding medical costs leading to the present day, it's easy to infer that the reform we need in this country isn't health-care reform – it's social, spiritual and moral reform.
If you really want to control the medical costs in America, then control immoral behavior. It might be more effective if we were to tolerate a little old-fashioned religion and discourage immorality with a vengeance.
Here's that study:
A study prepared by The Lewin Group for the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism estimated the total economic cost of alcohol and drug abuse to be $245.7 billion for 1992. Of this cost, $97.7 billion* was due to drug abuse. [This estimate includes illicit drugs and other drugs taken for non-medical purposes. It does not include nicotine.] This estimate includes substance abuse treatment and prevention costs as well as other health-care costs, costs associated with reduced job productivity or lost earnings, and other costs to society such as crime and social welfare. The study also determined that these costs are borne primarily by governments (46 percent), followed by those who abuse drugs and members of their households (44 percent).The 1992 cost estimate has increased 50 percent over the cost estimate from 1985 data. The four primary contributors to this increase were: 1) the epidemic of heavy cocaine use, 2) the HIV epidemic, 3) an eightfold increase in state and federal incarcerations for drug offenses, and 4) a threefold increase in crimes attributed to drugs.
More than half of the estimated costs of drug abuse were associated with drug-related crime. These costs included lost productivity of victims and incarcerated perpetrators of drug-related crime (20.4 percent); lost legitimate production due to drug-related crime careers (19.7 percent); and other costs of drug-related crime, including federal drug traffic control, property damage, and police, legal, and corrections services (18.4 percent). Most of the remaining costs resulted from premature deaths (14.9 percent), lost productivity due to drug-related illness (14.5 percent), and health-care expenditures (10.2 percent).
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