Monday, June 15, 2009

Our Behaviors, Our Health

BOB AGARD CALLS our attention to a recent WSJ editorial written by Safeway's CEO Steven Burd that states the obvious: 70% of ALL health care costs are related to our personal behavior. The piece further highlights the reality that 74% of all costs are related to the big four: cardio-vascular, cancer, diabetes and obesity.

Sure government can try to bail us out of these chronic diseases, if only temporarily, but the cost to taxpayers is enormous and growing exponentially. The system will one day collapse of its own weight (no pun intended).

According to this editorial, Safeway is doing its part to reduce government spending and skyrocketing health costs by rewarding its employees for healthy behaviors in the form of lower premiums. Read Burd's piece.

2 comments:

Mystic Indigo said...

I woke up this morning and decided I am going to live my life as if I don't have any medical insurance at all. I have been lax in exercising and eat more then my share of bacon at the breakfast table...but always with the thought that I can get it fixed if it came right down to it. No more. Buying into the belief that medicine is my savior is stupid and I am not going to do it anymore. Great post.

Webutante said...

We all need to, Stacie. And it's hard to get into and stay in those good habits....