Healthy Living Can Cut Medical Costs

Health care now costs an average of $7,868 a year for each person in the United States—far more than in other Western countries—and will rise to $13,101 by 2017 if nothing is done to rein in escalating costs. Cutting that price tag means that people need to take personal responsibility for leading healthy lifestyles, according to health policy experts at AARP’s Life@50+ National Event and Expo in Washington.

“Personal decisions affect health and pocketbooks,” said Cora Christian, M.D., a physician in the U.S. Virgin Islands and a member of AARP’s national board. “Nothing adds more to the quality of life than personal fitness.” And yet, she added:

• Over the past 10 years, obesity has almost doubled among people 50 and over. By 2020, up to 20 percent of health care dollars will be spent on complications of obesity.

• Nearly 24 million Americans (8 percent of the population) have diabetes, and the death rate from this disease has increased by 45 percent in the past decade.

• Although fewer people now smoke than in the past, 438,000 people a year still die from the effects of smoking.
Looking at what drives up costs in the health care system, John Rother, AARP’s director of policy, dispelled some myths. The aging of boomers, the cost of government health programs and malpractice insurance may add to the problem, he said, but don’t cause it. Broadly, the causes are:

• Underuse of care: people not getting enough treatment, so that ultimately their medical conditions become worse and more expensive.

• Overuse of care: unnecessary tests and duplication of services when patients see multiple doctors.

• Misuse of care: medical errors and harmful drug interactions leading to additional treatment.
“Poor care,” Rother said, “is expensive care.” Untreated high blood pressure, for example, costs $1.2 billion a year. And the steep increase in the number of people with chronic illness has resulted in just five diseases now eating up 75 percent of health care dollars: congestive heart failure, coronary heart disease, diabetes, asthma and depression.

“Poor care,” Rother said, “is expensive care.” Untreated high blood pressure, for example, costs $1.2 billion a year. And the steep increase in the number of people with chronic illness has resulted in just five diseases now eating up 75 percent of health care dollars: congestive heart failure, coronary heart disease, diabetes, asthma and depression.

When AARP calls for “quality, affordable patient-centered health care,” Rother said, it means changing the way medical services are delivered so that patients can get coordinated care from a team of health professionals, more information so they can participate in decisions about their care, and low- or no-cost preventive services, such as flu shots, to keep them healthy.