Pay Now or Pay Later

I recently saw a repeat of a news show on healthy lifestyles, obesity and food choices. I have excerpted from the show transcripts. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/25/sunday/main5419040.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

“But, how do you make healthy choices when they simply do not exist?

Lucinda Hudson and Holland Brown led a 12-year battle to bring a grocery store to this Philadelphia neighborhood.

"It was horrible, to say the least, about a community as big as this, to have no supermarket!" said Hudson.

Jeff Brown owns this Shop Rite franchise. He opened four locations in the inner city, thanks to grants and loans, all part of a Pennsylvania program designed to encourage healthier living.

Before the supermarket opened, the only options in the neighborhood, said Brown, were small bodegas. "And the bodegas did not have a lot of fresh food, and their prices were very expensive. So we have a situation that the poorest of us had to pay the most. And that's the part that just doesn't work.

"Success here is tallied in the receipts. This store sells the same amount of fresh foods as its more affluent, suburban counterparts. And even if fresh costs more, Regina Brown says it's worth it:

"It's going to cost you one way or another," Regina Brown told Doane.

"It's going to cost you health-wise - or it's going to cost you money-wise. Either way you pay. So I'd rather pay this way."

"Pay on the front end?" asked Doane.

"Pay on the front end, yeah," she said.

And those "back-end" health care costs may only get bigger.”

I wanted readers to see this section for 2 reasons, it’s inspiring what determination can accomplish and specifically for the part bolded.

Some of us don’t want to “pay now” by making healthy choices. Some people want to “pay later”.
· Did you know if you are newly diagnosed with diabetes, you can expect to shell out about $4200 more a year in medical expenses? I don’t know about you, but I can have lots of fun with $4200 a year.
· According to a study by the University of Chicago the number of Americans with diabetes will increase from 24 million to 44 million people by the year 2034. The health care costs will increase from $116 billion to $336 billion a year. www.forbes.com 1/13/2010.
Ouch.

“Of the $5.3 billion GM spent on medical bills last year (2006) an estimated 25 percent could be traced back to unhealthy habits such as overeating, lack of exercise, stress, cigarettes and alcohol.”

GM has 90,000 diabetics among the people on their health plan, (this is from an article written in 2007.) The diabetics on the plan who are younger than age 65 cost the company $12,000 a year for medical care that is related to diabetes. The folks over 65 are on Medicare and still cost the company about $5000 per year. Other diabetes related problems include heart disease, blindness, kidney failure, limb amputation. Ka -ching. From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20061025/LIFESTYLE03/101220017/Losing-the-battle-of-the-bulge#ixzz0vTozoLKE

“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today” Malcolm X

Do you take your car/truck in for regular oil changes and tire rotation? Have the brakes checked periodically? Wash your vehicle, vacuum it, and keep it clean? It is likely your home away from home, we spend lots of time driving across this vast state, to and from work or chauffeuring kids to activities.

Stay with me here, I am getting to the point. What I am driving at (no pun intended) is this: most of us take better care of our vehicle than we do our bodies. Guess what, car parts can be replaced. Body parts, well, some parts are replaceable, but at a very high cost, physically and financially. But let’s face it, by the time you have a body part that needs replacing, it has been pretty well battered. Think about this, are you driving around on bald tires? Is your oil light on? Exactly. You are taking care of your vehicle. Why aren’t you taking as good care of yourself? A car can be replaced. Sound familiar? This is from the April 12 blog.

"If I knew I would live so long, I would have taken better care of myself." Mickey Mantle

According to a study by Franco et al, in people with diabetes who are 50 years and older, the life expectancy for men is 7.5 years less than men without the disease and diabetic women lived an average of 8.2 years less than women without the disease. Tack on heart disease associated with diabetes and the years for men fell to 7.8 years and women 8.4 years. Arch Intern Med. 2007 Jun 11;167(11):1145-51.
Associations of diabetes mellitus with total life expectancy and life expectancy with and without cardiovascular disease. Franco OH, Steyerberg EW, Hu FB, Mackenbach J, Nusselder W.


What does $4200 buy you?

· Co-pays to the doctor
· Co-pays for lab work
· Co-pays for medication
· Co-insurance, this is your out of pocket expense for what your insurance does not cover
· Lost time from work for you and possibly your spouse
· Lost time from enjoying life cause you feel crummy

~OR~

Just for the heck of it I priced out 3 very nice vacations. This is what I found on-line for under $4200:
· Round trip from Helena MT
· Travel from January 31, 2011 – February 14, 2011
· All 3 trips are for 2 people and include air fare, a stay at a 5 star hotel and car for 2 weeks

· To Maui - $3802
· To Venice, Italy- $3609
· To Paris, France -$3826


“You’ll never miss the water till the well runs dry” WC Handy

Joke of the Week

My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE.
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning."