STAYING HEALTHY IS MORE EXPENSIVE THAN YOU THINK

To proactively invest in your health is more expensive. I get it. Here’s why.

Quality food costs more, eating real food is more expensive than processed food, gym memberships add up, supplements can be expensive, and joining a health program or group seems like a lot to pay.

The average monthly out-of-pocket insurance payment in the U.S. for a 40-year-old is $541.00, or $6,492.00 per year.

The average medical cost per person per year is $11,172.00, making the return on your insurance payment slightly over 2 to 1, with some getting much more and a small population much less.

If you are like me and have not used the medical system or insurance, or very infrequent use, that becomes a loss and a potentially big one. 

The way these numbers end up has the healthy paying for the sick. 

Considering the default result of living in our society is chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, cancer, pain, depression, Alzheimer’s, and more, it takes a proactive approach, and deliberate effort to remain healthy, and lacking such efforts makes one sick.

The proactive healthy people who work at maintaining or restoring a healthy status end up paying for their healthy living efforts out of pocket on top of the insurance payments and essentially pay for the ones that get sick.

That is a significant burden and dramatic imbalance financially to put on a tiny segment of the population. With only about 12% of Americans maintaining a healthy status, 88% of the metabolically unhealthy become their financial responsibility.

invest in your health

That’s six unhealthy people being supported by every one healthy person.

Yet, in our medical system, it is difficult to receive health insurance reimbursement for proactive services for wellness or prevention as a consumer, and an uphill battle to receive them as a health care professional offering them.

This added difficulty in obtaining services for the expense of the insurance premiums within the system they have to pay adds another layer of challenges onto the backs of the healthy who have to seek out supportive health options and pay even more out of pocket.

For the insurance, government, and medical system, the dedication of the 12% pays off big time for them both in money saved on the healthy for treatment and testing but also keeps the extremely high premiums overall much lower than they would be if the 88% were to be pooled together without the 12% healthy to lower the average per person expense of medical care.

Now you have the healthy 12% paying dramatically higher monthly insurance payments, paying more out of pocket for healthy habits, and needing more time and energy to be healthy as they navigate the countless obstacles in the process.

The sick benefit from the healthy population, but the healthy only lose financially from the unhealthy majority.

I thank my fellow health enthusiasts for their dedication and commitment to your health and quality of life. You are helping many people and saving lives by maintaining high standards, even if you were never asked to do so or given a choice.

With all the talk about “doing your part” to keep our neighbors healthy and safe, I would hope that the proven results from this dramatically one-sided relationship that exists not only in times of a public health scare but every day would be considered more valuable than lining up to take an experimental procedure hoping to make a slight impact during a temporary potential threat.

If you are not proactive and improving your health, you will passively lose it.

But don’t worry, the ones who stay healthy will cover it.

We can do better!

Dr. Don

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