On healthcare costs

Forgive me as a venture into politics, just slightly.

A few weeks ago, a political columnist and blogger whom I read daily (grrrr, and I can't remember which one) had a throw-away line in a blog post, in which they said "Doctors and insurance companies have no business attempting to regulate health-care costs."   This is, of course, patently ridiculous.  Both the health care field AND insurance companies have a great opportunity, and obligation to do just that.  Two examples to prove my point.  

First, and most obviously, the diet that I'm on and the lifestyle changes I'm making.   My doctor did not say "You should lose weight so your clothes will fit better" or "You should lose weight so your office chair will creak less when you sit in it"  Although both those things are true.  What he actually said was "If you don't lose weight, your knees and ankles will get worse and worse.  But that probably won't matter after the heart attack you're going to have, unless the high blood pressure causes a stroke first"   (OK, so I'm consolidating what he really said)   The point is, taking the somewhat unpleasant action of limiting the foods I consume, and exercising when I'd rather be reading or playing with the kids is MUCH cheaper than an MRI, or an EKG or all the other acronyms that the doctors use.

Similarly, a flashback 7 years to when my wife was expecting our first son.   I was intrigued to discover that our insurance company would pay 100% of the costs for a car seat, up to a huge sum of money (I think it might have been $100 -- it was more expensive than the best car seat I could find).  But they would only pay for the car seat, if we'd provide proof that we had attended at least 3 parenting classes and a prepared childbirth class, and that my wife had seen her doctor for at least 4 prenatal visits.   Although the people at Blue Cross/Blue Shield are nice folks, and I'm sure one on one they would have a great deal of empathy for a family with a small child . . . the fact is that the insurance company doesn't REALLY care about us.  The reason they did these things is because their actuaries had said "If you pay $100 for car seats, you'll save an average of $110/per policy on auto accident claims".  And "If you pay for prenatal care, you'll save $1.25 in claims for every dollar that you pay."

In this way, both the medical profession and the insurance industry do, indeed, save all of us lots of money over time.

Since this is supposed to be a diet blog, I'll take a minute to announce that as of 6/30, which is day 47 of the diet, I'm down 29 and a half pounds.