Wellness is more than being free from illness. It is the determination, persistence and knowledge to take care of your own health through diet, exercise and lifestyle choices.
According to the CDC, chronic diseases consume up to 75 percent of total healthcare costs. They are also the most preventable. This includes such things as stroke, obesity, heart disease and some types of cancer.
The second part of the equation is affordable healthcare. Despite all of the dire predictions by some politicians, Obamacare seems to be working. According to a recent New York Times article, the number of Americans without health insurance has been reduced by about 25 percent this year. The number of uninsured American adults has dropped by over 16 million, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Unfortunately, many American really do not understand what the Affordable Care Act really is, and they rely on simplistic slogans by politicians and others with an agenda. With the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies are generally prohibited from denying coverage to people because of a pre-existing condition. Obamacare also requires insurance companies to spend at least 80 percent of your money on actual healthcare.
Up until the mid-1980s most health insurance companies were run as non-profits, including Blue Cross Blue Shield. During that era, 95 percent of your premium was spent on medical expense and only 5 percent was used for administrative costs.
Before Obamacare, United Healthcare paid out only 70 percent of your premium on medical expenses and kept 30 percent for profit, according to the Daily Kos. This is why the CEO of United Healthcare raked in $100 million a year in compensation. This begins to explain some of the fierce resistance to Obamacare by politicians who accept campaign contributions from the for-profit healthcare industry.
Some of the other benefits of Obamacare include: a guarantee of coverage renewal, protection against high out-of-pocket costs, and support of wellness programs. Obamacare has also attempted to reign in the rapid increase of prescription drug costs.
Recently, the New York Times reported on a drug called Daraprim that was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals. Turing immediately raised the price from around $13 to $750 a tablet, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars. This drug is the standard of care for treating a life-threatening parasitic infection.
Daraprim’s price increase is not an unusual example. Cycloserine, a drug used to treat tuberculosis, was just increased in price to over $10,800 from $500 (for 30 pills), after its acquisition by Rodelis Therapeutics. In August, two members of Congress wrote to Valeant Pharmaceuticals in protest after that company acquired a heart drug, Isuprel, and promptly raised its price by 525 percent. Obamacare has at least begun to raise red flags about the flagrant profiteering by some drug companies.
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