TW: One hears discussion often about whether folks leading unhealthy lifestyles (e.g. obesity, smoking etc.) are actually cheaper, from a cold-hearted health care cost perspective, to society since they die earlier than healthier folks. It is a simplistic concept that thankfully from more warm-hearted perspective appears to be untrue. The challenge of course is to encourage folks live more healthy lifestyles. Obviously a much easier said than done thing.
From Ezra Klein at WaPo:
"...as Lauren Neergaard reports, it's increasingly being resolved in favor of wellness.
'...Health economists once made the harsh financial calculation that the obese would save money by dying sooner. But more recent research instead suggests that better treatments are keeping them alive nearly as long - but they're much sicker for longer, requiring such costly interventions as knee replacements and diabetes care and dialysis. Medicare spends anywhere from $1,400 to $6,000 more annually on health care for an obese senior than for the non-obese...'
This is actually an important insight. It implies that we can bring down costs within the health-care system by changing factors outside of the health-care system. That flexibility is useful. It may be that we can't really make it cheaper to treat a diabetic. Particularly not as newer, more effective, and more expensive treatments emerge...You can do that, in fact, pretty cheaply, with technology that's been around for many years...
At the end of the day, health-care costs are going to have to come down. And that can happen in one of three ways. We can provide fewer people with access to health-care services. We can spend less on the health-care services we buy. Or we can need less in the way of health-care services. Which would you prefer?"
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/07/becoming_cheaper_by_becoming_h.html
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