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Friday, May 12. 2017

25%

Around 25% of medicare and medicaid spending has to do with complications related to overweight-connected diabetes. That is huge but likely underestimates overweight costs because arthritis, breast cancer, heart disease, and many other problems are also related to or caused by being overweight. For that, and related interesting medical cost info, A Provocative Health Care Proposal


Also, here's this:  Why Your Weight Is a Bigger Cancer Risk Than Smoking


Should medical insurance charge by BMI? And are EBT cards really helping people run their lives better? Statistically, weight is social class-related.


Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 13:57 | Comments (13) | Trackbacks (0)

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I think 25% is way to low.
#1 Blondie Utronki on 2017-05-12 15:02 (Reply)
too low not to low
#2 Blondie Utronki on 2017-05-12 15:03 (Reply)
No question that obesity/overweight is a health problem, but BMI is a useless number to judge obesity. Anyone who has significant muscle mass will have elevated BMI (muscles weigh more than fat, remember?). Have to pick a better reference number, if there is one.
#3 Doc on 2017-05-12 15:36 (Reply)
Of course, the US is one of the few countries where people in lower income and wealth quartiles are more overweight than those in the upper quartiles.

It's a strange dynamic. Usually when you don't have money, you eat less. In the US, you eat more when you don't have money, and you eat less and join a gym when you do have cash.

Go figure.
#4 Bulldog on 2017-05-12 16:03 (Reply)
I think you have the cause and effect backwards. The lower income isn't a cause of the overeating. Rather, the overeating and lower income are both - in the majority of cases - related to a lack of personal responsibility.

This lack of personal responsibility - sometimes called a sense of entitlement - was foisted upon the public by the Progressives culminating in LBJ's "Great Society" programs and reinforced by Progressives repeatedly telling certain people that by their mere existence, they were entitled to things that one would normally have to work for.
#4.1 mike m on 2017-05-12 23:12 (Reply)
Yep.

The market charges bad drivers more for insurance. Costs stay low. We give people with poor health habits free care. Costs explode. See the problem?
#4.1.1 Donald Bosch on 2017-05-13 08:57 (Reply)
For the left, the solution is always the same: "take more money from those who produce stuff and give it to those who consume stuff"
#4.1.1.1 mike m on 2017-05-13 09:30 (Reply)
No BMI, please. I cannot tell you how irritated I was with the military when I would constantly be 1 or 2 pounds over the weight limit for my height, but I was THIN. I just have the ability to put on a lot of muscle mass for a woman. Legs, butt, abdomen. I went to boot camp, lost only 2 pounds, but dropped a couple of sizes. Still was 'overweight' according to Navy weight tables. Had to be 'taped' every single weigh in.

Meanwhile, big fat beachball women who were 5'2" passed weight right next to me. It was maddening.

BMI is a joke.
#5 MissT on 2017-05-12 16:55 (Reply)
"That is huge . . . "

Good pun.
#6 bobby b on 2017-05-12 17:06 (Reply)
Do not think for a second that the government would know better than most people what to eat and what lifestyle is "good". This would be a disaster and is not about health or longevity but rather about control. Of course it is wise to keep your weight in a normal range, to avoid excessive drinking and smoking. And while it is arguably wise to eat a healthy diet no one can agree on what that actually is. After cigarettes and alcohol The single biggest factor for all of us that affects your health and longevity will be your genes and not your diet. If you want to live a long healthy life select your parents very carefully.
#7 GoneWithTheWind on 2017-05-12 17:54 (Reply)
I don't object to insurers using any metric their statisticians have told them are associated with costs. Letting the government instruct them in this is asking for big trouble. The insurers want to stay in business and therefore will engage in constant reality checking. The government will institute one sacred cow after another without regard to the evidence.
#7.1 Texan99 on 2017-05-12 20:20 (Reply)
I see we have moved from government subsidized healthcare to now that the government is subsidizing healthcare the government gets to control your life and ensure you are living according to the morals of the "betters".

Americans would never surrender their liberty, but they will sell it for free birth control.
#8 JK Brown on 2017-05-12 18:43 (Reply)
"Americans would never surrender their liberty, but they will sell it for free birth control."

You underestimate Your Fellow Americans. To get 90% you need to add "free education", "free health care", and "free abortion."

They will settle for nothing less than being sophisticated. Like Europeans. Free is Free. Once they have the important Free Stuff they will be Free To Do As They Are Told.

Sounds good, doesn't it?
#8.1 Knucklehead (Link) on 2017-05-12 19:35 (Reply)

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