Our sedentary lifestyle also at our expense. We need more health care than it should be. The main reasons for hospital and medical insurance is so expensive now that medical interventions cost much and are probably no longer used. Now, many doctors routinely hyper-surgical procedures that were unheard of not long ago expensive.
One way to shrink our costs for healthcare insurance would be to lower the number of bypass operations and other heart surgeries that are performed. In the good old days of inexpensive health insurance, these medical interventions were performed much less frequently.
Of course lowering the number of interventions without reducing the medical necessity for those interventions would simply result in higher mortality. The unwanted side effect of lowering costs is often lowering effectiveness.
A tremendous percentage of medical expenses are generated in the last years or even months of life. In an attempt to extend life we often will spare no expense.
From a purely financial standpoint, extending the money making life of a forty year old helps our country more than extending the life of an eighty year old. Chances are the forty year old is working and paying taxes. If he or she were to die they would stop paying income taxes. If they were to become disabled they would not only stop paying into the system, but might also start being paid money from the government in the form of government benefits. Extending the life of an eighty year-old who has stopped paying earning an income or taxes and who is currently being paid Social Security benefits has the reverse effect.
Money isn't everything but, we should at least be aware of the importance of helping currently tax-paying workers continue to be tax-paying workers puts more money in our pockets that we can use for other things. Those other things can include extending the life of our older citizens.
Unless you are a president, there is probably not a lot that you can do to change what health insurance costs for everyone else. However, there may be a lot you can do to keep premiums and other costs down for yourself and your family.
Do what you can to stay hale and hearty. Being active and eating nutritious foods in moderation will do several things for your costs for health care.
If you are healthier you will use your medical insurance less. This means that you will have fewer co-pays and other out-of-pocket expenses to pay. You will qualify for lower premiums if you need to purchase private or individual health insurance.
Shop around for insurance. Look at not only different health insurance companies, but different places to get health insurance from. If you are eligible for COBRA, for example don't just look at COBRA. Consider private health insurance also.
Health insurance is expensive for several reasons. Many of the reasons that it is so costly are beyond our control. However, we can take the time to research the health insurance options available to us and do what we can to stay healthy and thereby reduce health insurance expenses for ourselves and our families.