It ain't worth the price

These days it’s important to keep health costs as low as possible. You may think that putting off treatment is a way to save money. But, many or most times, procrastinating on a health problem is only going to make it more serious—and more costly to deal with—down the road. Think of health care, like regular maintenance visits to a chiropractor, as an investment in yourself.  In this way, like regular blood work for your medical doctor, we can find small problems before they become large ones.  Like  many of our wellness minded, proactive patients do to keep their body  functioning the best they can so that it doesn’t have the opportunity to give them pain again.

Whether it’s your dentist, doctor or chiropractor, you shouldn’t wait until you’re in some sort of crisis before making an appointment. Preventive maintenance is, in the long run, a far less costly policy. And it goes beyond just pain. Regular chiropractic care has been proven to lower blood pressure, over-all inflammation and increase immunity.

Maintenance care is not for everyone and if it is more your style to “wait till it’s broke”, well, that is your choice.  Just don’t be mad about it when it takes longer to fix and costs you more at the time you decide to fix it.  That is a decision each person makes for themselves and no one will judge you on that either way; and we’ll still be here to help.

And now that the kids are finally in school, what else are you going to do with all your free time?

Pro-active vs Prevention

There's been lot's of talk about using preventative measures to lower health care costs during all this reform hoop-la. I'm here to tell you "their" idea of prevention won't save anything, and will cost extra, because it's not prevention at all but just being proactive. Heart disease: "they" say early testing and monitoring is cheaper than by-pass. It is, but stress tests, MRA's and angio-grams cost $10K each and then your avg cholesterol medication is about another 7 grand a year. It's cheaper for the insurance company for you to have a heart attack and die, that's called hedging your bet. "Their" so called preventative measures aren't really about prevention, but finding things that may or may not be wrong with expensive tests and medication.

Now, I'm not saying don't get your tests, early detection is far more valuable then money; do them, do them regularly and on time. Being proactive is priceless, but it's not prevention.

Want true prevention that actually prevents disease and saves money? Move well, eat well and think well. Exercise $75-100 for a good pair of shoes; putting down that snickers, saves you money; brocolli $2ish/pound; letting go of anger and angst, sometimes free; not having a heart attack, priceless.

Paying for health care

I. End the corn subsidy. Corn is processed into corn syrup, a highly inflammatory, high but empty calorie goo that makes us fat and promotes disease. It also alters the histology and biochemistry of the animals that eat it; which in turn alters the biochemistry and histology of us meat eaters. Cows should be eating grass. Corn makes them bigger and is cheaper because of the subsidy. Take the money and put it to health care, and the increased cost will force farmers to raise healthier meats.

II. Tax fast food, prepared, processed and junk foods that all tend to be cheaper than healthy foods. Take that money and put it toward health care. It will also make healthy food cheaper (by comparison).

III. Make gym memberships, visits to true preventitive providers such as chiropractors and nutritionists tax deductible. Healthier people go to the doctor less.

IV. Make health insurance merit based, such as auto. In that I'm self-employed, I have to buy my own insurance. Private plans are exempt from ERISA rules; which means that people with unhealthy habits, the over weight, with pre-existing conditions and those who go to the doctor more, pay more. All health insurance should be the same.

V.Mal practice reform. Not tort reform.Currently 80% of all medical costs are diagnostic, not because the doctor doesn't know what's wrong, but so he can document he did his diligence incase you sue. Insurance companies charge outrages fees to doctors not because of law suits, but because they lost their shirts in the market. I know an OB that has been in practice over 20 years, never been sued and by law has to carry a $1 million policy, which he pays $100,000 a year for. If you capped malpactice payouts today, I doubt rates would go down. Insurance companies are there to make money first, provide a service second.

Put the burden (and financially) on the plantiff. If you loose, you pay for court costs, investigations and the doctors lost wages. Cases can only be filed after an obudsmen finds that it is true neglegence, not just a mistake.

More of Me

I've started this blog to further promote health, wellness and prevention. The real thing, not how a politician or salesman uses those words. Quickly, I am a trained chiropractor with physical therapy priveleges in Bel Air, MD. I have thousands of classroom and hundreds of thousands of experience hours in diagnosing and treating all manor of disease along with how to prevent it from a natural model of health. You can visit me on the web at http://www.susquespine.com or http://belairdiskpain.com and be my facebook friend: Susquehanna Spine N Rehab