The difference in maintaining your own health
11th March 2014
With the ever increasing cost of medical insurance it is no wonder that the numbers of people dropping out of health insurance policies is on the increase. There is a very welcome upside to this and that is that people are evaluating the need for health insurance versus their own responsibility to maintain their own health.
You see, having health insurance allowed some people to leave their total health responsibility with their insurer. You pay your premium. You get ill. Then they pay your medical expenses which can be quite high.
However people are realising that they can not afford the premiums, why? Because the demand for hospital services due to a decrease in service capacity has pushed up the cost of medical care.
So what are the costs? Well just to look at one single area the HSE tell us that a hospital bed night in a public ward costs €800 per night. Yes, €800 per night. So we need not delve anymore into the world of Hospital care costs.
Currently the average cover price for health insurance…hold on lets stop calling this what it isn’t …we are talking about critical medical care insurance…..you’ve got to be critically ill, like heart attack, stroke, cancer or another medical condition that requires the services of the medical profession. Car accidents, work place accidents and other forms of injuries that require medical care in hospital, you will find are covered under various other insurance policies.
So just take heart attack, stroke and cancer. According to the HSE most of these conditions are in brought on by patients themselves, usually through poor lifestyle choices such as a poor diet leading to excessive body fat, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption or drug use and a lack of regular exercise. It is interesting that with all of the monies spent on the Health Service little is known in the public realm about the cost to the state of people not taking simple steps to maintain their bodies in a healthy condition.
Research conducted by our own health promotion staff in 2013 which reviewed over 500 people who attended our Clinic last year showed that a majority of people are unaware of basic nutritional and exercise limits. Other interesting factors also emerged such as the number of people who have high Cholesterol and excess body fat are in excess of the HSE’s published figures.
On a very positive note those who did attend the clinic had a proactive approach to working on improving their health through education and making positive lifestyle changes. Everyone who went on a cholesterol lowering programme or a corrective body mass composition programme achieved success at improving their health. Not a bad result for taking responsibility for your own health.
You see, having health insurance allowed some people to leave their total health responsibility with their insurer. You pay your premium. You get ill. Then they pay your medical expenses which can be quite high.
However people are realising that they can not afford the premiums, why? Because the demand for hospital services due to a decrease in service capacity has pushed up the cost of medical care.
So what are the costs? Well just to look at one single area the HSE tell us that a hospital bed night in a public ward costs €800 per night. Yes, €800 per night. So we need not delve anymore into the world of Hospital care costs.
Currently the average cover price for health insurance…hold on lets stop calling this what it isn’t …we are talking about critical medical care insurance…..you’ve got to be critically ill, like heart attack, stroke, cancer or another medical condition that requires the services of the medical profession. Car accidents, work place accidents and other forms of injuries that require medical care in hospital, you will find are covered under various other insurance policies.
So just take heart attack, stroke and cancer. According to the HSE most of these conditions are in brought on by patients themselves, usually through poor lifestyle choices such as a poor diet leading to excessive body fat, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption or drug use and a lack of regular exercise. It is interesting that with all of the monies spent on the Health Service little is known in the public realm about the cost to the state of people not taking simple steps to maintain their bodies in a healthy condition.
Research conducted by our own health promotion staff in 2013 which reviewed over 500 people who attended our Clinic last year showed that a majority of people are unaware of basic nutritional and exercise limits. Other interesting factors also emerged such as the number of people who have high Cholesterol and excess body fat are in excess of the HSE’s published figures.
On a very positive note those who did attend the clinic had a proactive approach to working on improving their health through education and making positive lifestyle changes. Everyone who went on a cholesterol lowering programme or a corrective body mass composition programme achieved success at improving their health. Not a bad result for taking responsibility for your own health.
