We have two interesting health-related news headlines in the last two days. Here’s the summary:
- The percentage of people who smoke is up in the last year.
- Childhood obesity is still on the rise (between the ages of 6 and 19 it has tripled since 1970).
And Congress just voted yes on a bill to have we the people pay for pretty much everyone’s health care? Now how does that make any sense at all? Obesity and smoking are both totally controllable by the individual and both are the causes of major health problems. So, tell me, why should anyone be forced to pay for any other individual’s health care when someone does things so detrimental to their own state of well being? And the real kicker is, where in any of this health care reform is there incentive for preventive care? Where is there any incentive for doctors to enter or stay in primary care/family medicine when obviously we’re going to have so many more people in the system?
November 13, 2009
