While the presidential candidates debate whether the U.S. needs universal health care and who should pay for it, a new report says there should be room in the discussion about preventive measures and a national commitment to promoting health and wellness.
A report by the Milken Institute, a private economic think tank based in California, says the current health system is failing Americans because of the rise in obesity and preventable diseases across the board.
And there is more at stake besides healthy citizens.
“By our calculations, the most common chronic diseases are costing the economy more than $1 trillion annually — and that figure threatens to reach $6 trillion by the middle of the century. Yet, much of this cost is avoidable,” the report said.
The study provided estimates of current and future treatment costs and lost productivity stemming from seven of the most common chronic diseases: Cancer, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart disease, pulmonary conditions and mental disorders. Each disease was linked to behavioral and/or environmental risk factors that could be addressed through prevention programs.
According to the report, more than 109 million Americans have at least one of the seven diseases, for a total of 162 million cases. By 2023, according to the report, there will be a 42 percent increase in these diseases if prevention methods are not put into place.
Assuming “modest improvements” in prevention and treatment, the institute said, Americans could avoid 40 million cases of chronic disease, reduce the economic impact of disease by $1 trillion annually, cut treatment costs by $218 billion a year and raise the nation’s gross domestic product — a way to measure the growth of the economy — by $905 billion with gains in productivity.
“Employers, insurers, governments and communities need to work together to develop strong incentives for patients and health-care providers to prevent and treat chronic disease effectively. In many respects, we’ve gotten what we paid for: Only a tiny fraction of health-care spending is devoted to the promotion of healthier behavior, despite the fact that preventable chronic diseases are linked to smoking, obesity, lack of exercise and drug and alcohol use,” the report said.
If obesity became a national health issue, just as smoking cessation did more than 30 years ago, the report estimated, the prevalence of overweight Americans could be reduced to 32.2 percent of the population by 2023, and obesity could decline to 19 percent of the population, about where it was in 1998.
“This would translate to a reduction in health-care spending of $60 billion and an increase in productivity of $254 billion, and account for a large proportion of the overall economic impact,” the report said.
Obesity is quickly becoming the nation’s leading health crisis, with nearly 80 percent of black adult women and 67 percent of black adult men now overweight. Approximately 20 percent of blacks between the ages of 12 and 19 are overweight, and — for the first time in our nation’s history, the current generation of young people is not expected to outlive their parents because of the health risks they face because of weight problems, including diabetes and hypertension.
Nelson L. Adams, M.D., president of the National Medical Association, told BlackAmericaWeb.com last month that he wants black Americans to gain a sense of empowerment and use that feeling to take better control of their health.
“As important as access to medical care is, it is equally important to focus on what we have to take personal responsibility for to keep us well and stay well,” Adams said. “It’s really about personal choice — eating right and exercising.”
Weight loss within the African-American community has been a major topic in recent years, especially with the emergence of community-oriented weight-loss programs like the 50 Million Pound Challenge, sponsored by State Farm Insurance.
“The very good news is that we have the ability to reverse these unhealthy trends,” Ian K. Smith, M.D., the brainchild behind the 50 Million Pound Challenge and health expert on VH-1’s “Celebrity Fit Club,” said on the initiative’s Web site. “For many of us, it’s not just a matter of fitting into a smaller size, but a matter of life and death. The Challenge can do so much, not just for our physical health, but for our minds and spirit too.”