Keeping people well is much cheaper than treating sick people
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Phil Wolffe
Workplace Wellbeing Specialist - Making workplace…
Published Mar 29, 2022
Thought/quote:This thing we call 'healthcare' is actually 'sickness-care', misnamed.
Tip:The world's healthcare system pays little attention to promoting health, focusing instead on alleviating sickness.
For all our collective talk of 'preventative medicine' we put very little emphasis on actively promoting it.
As an industry, as well as individuals, we take our health (and our healthy people) for granted, paying them no attention until they falter.
Then, when they get sick, the system kicks in. Doctors, nurses, specialists, pharmacists all leap into action and do their best to make us 'well'. Plying us with treatments and medicines and tomes worth of advice to 'cure' us, when what was needed was far simpler and long past.
Since this system is not set up to care for our health, it falls to each and every one of us to do it for ourselves.
In organisations, this responsibility is not only ethical, but reaps financial benefits as well.
By addressing health before it deteriorates, we keep our people on the job and producing quality work year-round.
So, in the quest for a healthy population, let us spare some focus for the people who are not yet sick. The ones who are currently 'healthy' yet may be slipping ever closer, either through neglect or lack of knowledge or the inexorable march of time, to that line between sick and well, for catching them before they dip below it saves an enormous amount of time, money, grief and hardship.
The longer we can keep our people out of the sickness care system, the better it will be for all of us as individuals, families, companies, and economies.
Question:Are we taking our healthy people for granted?
News: The 'sickness care' model of the United States means that despite spending more per capita on healthcare than any other nation, outcomes for patients are still well below where they should be - keeping people well is much cheaper than treating sick people.
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It is cheaper to provide basic low cost healthcare to a healthy citizenry like New York than to ultimately bear the cost of chronic health problems like Texas.
People have to take responsibility for their own health, tho. Exercise is free. A brisk walk for a few minutes a day is sufficient. Eating healthy is a bit harder, but frozen and canned fruits and veggies are better for you than chips and cookies
I know all this
but here I sit typing all this stuff while I have diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. I'm a fine example of someone who could have prevented all that but didn't
Most healthcare expenses are related to treating chronic often avoidable conditions like diabetes and obesity and the unavailable costs of end of life care. It costs little in comparison to provide preventative care to an overall healthy population than to treat the chronic health problems of an unhealthy population. Fortunately my bloodwork is pristine, even if it probably should not be...
You are right. You can educate and provide preventative health care til Kingdom Come but it won't do any good if people don't take care of themselves
StateRankTotal SLG debtper capitaTotal SLG debtTotal state gov debtTotal local gov debtTotal SLG debt% of GDP
Hasn't your healthcare costs us a bundle?
Millions-n-millions, if I remember correctly.
I don't know about millions-n-millions, but definitely over a million. I think that it was money well spent.
I wouldn’t even call it sickness-care. More like sickness maintenance. In this country it isn’t just legal to market unhealthy things as healthy, it’s considered a first amendment right. And god forbid an administration try to promote healthy eating.
Remember Michele Obama?
Man....did she get grief or what?
Of course he remembers. Except he probably remembers her as Moochelle.