One Size Does NOT Fit All

Health and Wellness are the new buzz words. I don’t mind saying that I gag every time I hear these words, they’ve been used so much.

While I have nothing against being healthy and well, what I have a problem with is this new idea that everyone should fit into the same size of health and wellness. As each of us is individual and unique unto ourselves, I find it disturbing that health and wellness is judged based on weight and lifestyle choices.

Not every overweight person is unhealthy, and not every slim person is healthy. It’s funny that there was no “obesity epidemic” until they lowered the BMI (body mass index) and suddenly overnight 30 million Americans were overweight when just the day before their weight was just fine. BMI is measured by height and weight and the new guidelines made Tom Cruise overweight, even though he has more muscle. Using BMI to measure the “health and wellness” of anyone is not sensible at all.

More and more companies these days are instituting “wellness programs” in the workplace. These programs are of course voluntary, but they also tend to offer incentives, or rewards if you will, for those who do participate and meet the pre-set goals of the program. These goals are not just weight, but lifestyle habits, blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol levels and more. If you participate you will be evaluated and given the numbers in these areas you are to meet within a certain time frame.

It all sounds good, but do we really want our employers now dictating our life outside of the workplace? I know I don’t.

In Japan, they have a mandatory program (Metabo) that all employers have to get all their employees over the age of 40 to be a certain size. They have to actually measure the employees’ waists and those who are over the mandated waist size of 33.5 inches for men and 35.5 inches for women are referred to counseling and monitoring. The employers are also to keep their staff slim or pay more into the national health insurance program.

I can see this happening here. I don’t know about you, but this is not my idea of living free, or healthy for that matter. Can you imagine having a large bone structure and the smallest waistline you can manage is 36 inches?

We are all built differently and one size never fits all, and it never will, contrary to what some people may think.

Health Insurance is not Health Care

A major topic out of Washington these days is “Health Care”. What I find interesting is that it is not actual health care they are talking about – as in quality and accessibility of such – but is in fact about health insurance coverage for all.

And while so many are cheering the government on for “Universal Healthcare” they are forgetting a few simple facts.

Health insurance is not health care. Everyone has accessibility to health care. Those who are uninsured use the emergency rooms. Granted, it makes for long waits when you are not a real emergency, but I’m not sure that having a government issued health insurance card will change these people’s habit of just going to the ER for treatment.

Many people I know moan and groan about the costs to the taxpayers for the Medicaid and Medicare programs. They complain that these people get free health insurance while the rest of us work our butts off to pay for ours, either solely on our own or through our employers. Medicare is not free either as most Social Security recipients have about $100 per month deducted from their monthly payment to pay for it. That $100 per month makes life very hard from some elderly folks.

Our representatives are talking about a government sponsored program that would insure everyone. So who exactly is going to pay for this? That’s right, the working class taxpayer, that’s who. So I’m not sure why they think this Universal Health Care thing will be any different.

Then there is a good chance that once you are on a government insurance program you have just opened the door for the government to start telling you exactly how to live. I’d bet that it wouldn’t be long before the mandates came telling us what we could and could not eat, what activities we could and could not participate in, how much exercise and what kind we were required to do daily.

This also doesn’t take into account the fact that having health insurance of some kind would be mandatory. Unless the government run health insurance program is totally free (no premiums, co-pays or deductibles) there will still be people who can’t afford it. Those making minimum wage can barely support themselves with 2 paychecks making purchasing health insurance still unaffordable for them.

Now if Medicaid and Medicare are so good, as I’ve seen stated lately when these discussions come up, why not just change the income requirements on Medicaid and lower the age requirement for Medicare to allow those without health insurance to enroll? Why create yet another system when we already have two that seem to work?

Health insurance is not health care. They should consider reigning in the insurance companies to make existing insurance more affordable, and to prevent them from turning anyone down because of existing health issues, etc. Then reign in the pharmaceutical companies to make the costs of the drugs doctors prescribe more affordable. At least this would be a real start with a good chance at working. That is IF making sure everyone has health insurance is the real goal.