As you probably know by now I am a big advocate of people taking charge of their own health. I was actually thinking about promoting a product “Healing Kitchen” that I absolutely believe in as a cornerstone of good health but it is a bit pricey. With that statement I found myself asking ‘what price is health?‘ and ‘What does it cost to be sick?“ As some of you may know we do a lot of pro-bono work because we believe in making our services accessible to everyone. And it comes to a point where we do so much pro bone work we have to stop and actually earn some money… anyway – so I am thinking about how we ‘cost‘ our health on the basis of what things cost and then I get this email:
It’s Time to Declare Your Health Independence
If the current health care debate has anything to teach us, it’s that it’s going to be more expensive in the future to get sick. Much more. On the other hand, it will pay you handsomely to keep yourself and your family well. Insurance premiums are already rising. They’ve doubled since 2000 — and one California provider is preparing customers for an immediate 39% premium hike. One US city now bills $300 for a 911 call (expect this idea to spread).
Just in case you need extra motivation to start taking better care of yourself and your family, here are some scary statistics on the high price of illness these days
- 62.1% of bankruptcies in the US are medically-related
- 50% of all home foreclosure are caused by medical problems
- 37% of Americans pay more than $2,000 for medical bills out of pocket each year
- 30% of workers lose two or more weeks of work because of illness annually
- 46.6 million Americans have no health insurance
- 14,000 workers are losing insurance coverage every day because of unemployment
Meanwhile, Type 2 diabetes is an epidemic (with nearly 30 million Americans already diagnosed and perhaps 10 million walking around not knowing they have it). Cancer is now the nation’s leading killer, striking 1-out-of-2 sometime in our lives. And heart attacks still claim 500,000 of us every year. These are not good survival odds.
These are some seriously scary stats…
Here are 7 Simple Ways to Keep Out of Medical Debt (why not call it – ways to save your life and some money to enjoy it with???)
Numerous studies show that the majority of the health problems that send us to the doctor and the hospital are almost entirely preventable by making a few simple lifestyle changes…
