Invest In Your health….A Financial Commitment That Can Last A LIFETIME!
By Maryann Jacks, M.D. – President, People’s Healthcare, LLC
During these difficult financial times we find ourselves thinking more about our money….where it’s going, where its gone, and more importantly where to invest it in the future. Many have taken a hard hit during this past year, and aren’t sure about whose advice to trust or follow. People seem to invest more time thinking about finances, listening more closely to the evening news, reading and talking to one another about investments, in hopes of finding some good financial advice.
In reflecting upon this as a physician, I often wonder why we don’t look more closely at ourselves and our health as an excellent financial investment. After all, when we invest in our health we often get immediate returns on our investment in a variety of ways, and certainly make an investment in our future. If you listened to President Obama’s recent Address To Congress in February, you may have been shocked by one of the statistics reported when discussing the crushing cost of healthcare:
“This is a cost that now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds. By the end of the year it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their home”.
And in speaking about his recovery plan with the largest investment ever in preventive care, he stated:
“because that’s one of the best ways to keep our people healthy and our costs under control”.
The bottom line is that illness is extremely costly…very few of us can afford it! A study done a number of years ago showed that more than half of those declaring bankruptcy due to illness already had health insurance. The first day that an elderly patient is admitted to a hospital, Medicare has more than a $1,000.00 out of pocket deductible. If you look at the NJ Hospital Association’s website, you can view average hospital charges as well as the average number of days spent in the hospital for specific diseases in New Jersey. You’ll be astounded by the hospital charges for everyday illnesses. Data collected during the 2006 – 2007 year, showed that a kidney stone hospitalization had an average length of stay of about 1.5 days, with average charges of $15,000/person. An asthma visit had a length of stay of about 3 days, with charges of approximately $22,500/person. Pneumonia resulted in a stay of about 6 days, with charges of about $45,000/person, and a heart attack had a length of stay of about 5.5 days, with charges of $56,500/person. These medical problems are far from uncommon. This same site reported statewide hospital discharges for that year of 10,500 people with a diagnosis of kidney stones, over 16,000 people with asthma, more than 35,000 people with pneumonia, and over 56,000 with heart attacks. Is it there any question why illness bankrupts people? True, many of these costs are negotiated down and covered by insurance companies (that is if you don’t happen to be one of the more than 46 million Americans who are uninsured these days). But there’s still high costs in deductibles, physician follow-up visits, medications, and needed services once you’re discharged…not to speak of the lost time and wages from work. And just to add to the high costs, Medical News Today reported in 2004 a study done by Healthgrades (a healthcare quality company) that looked at 37 million patient records. They concluded that 195,000 people per year died due to potentially preventable in-hospital medical errors in each of the years 2000, 2001, and 2002. Have I convinced you yet that you really owe it to yourself both personally and financially to invest in your health?
It’s been said that 80% of the burden of illness in this country, and 90% of the healthcare costs are due to preventable illness. And yet, there are signs all around us that people are not “investing” in good health. . Findings from the 2007 National Immunization Survey reported in Family Practice News showed that only about 21% of children aged 6-23 months received complete influenza immunization. (This age group has one of the highest risks of being hospitalized when they contract the flu). According to American Medical News, research presented at the 74th annual International Scientific Assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians indicated that the number of smokers highly dependent on nicotine has reached a 15-year high (smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer in our country). Obesity has reached epidemic proportions – a major contributor to a number of illnesses including diabetes (a leading cause of blindness in our country). Just what are we doing to ourselves? And as if that’s not bad enough, with regard to our general healthcare during these difficult financial times “more people are delaying or not filling prescriptions, skipping medical tests, or putting off medical care in general because of health care costs” according to a November article in the American Medical News.
Understood, there are those who are suffering greatly during these difficult financial times and can barely put food on the table. As a country we need to do a better job at making healthcare accessible and affordable for all people. In an article entitled “Measuring The Health Of Nations: Updating An Earlier Analysis”, the United States placed last on a list of 19 other industrialized countries in terms of deaths that could have been prevented if people had access to timely and effective healthcare. Yes that’s right…LAST!
But I also think that if we’re honest with ourselves, many of us just don’t prioritize our own healthcare. As a society, I think we often find it difficult to invest in ourselves. Many of us passionately care for our families, only to go for years without seeing a doctor ourselves. We may go to the doctor only when we feel “we have to”. We find ourselves skimping on healthcare if it costs anything more than what insurance covers, and place our health on a low priority list particularly during difficult and stressful times…probably when we need to attend to it most. We save money for a rainy day or for what may lie ahead, but what we don’t often think about the devastating personal and financial costs of an illness…the kind we see everyday in healthcare.
I’ve spent pretty much my entire life in healthcare. To this day I sometimes struggle with trying to get my own family members to seek appropriate care. I started as a young hospital volunteer, worked my way through college as an EKG technician and lab technician, became a registered nurse, and later went on to become a physician. I’ve been privileged to care for many wonderful patients, and they have allowed me to see healthcare from many different perspectives. One consistent theme that has been echoed by so many patients that I’ve seen over the years is the importance of good health – unfortunately it’s all too often a realization that came too late for them. If they had it to do over, I know they would do things differently.
Dr. Maryann Jacks is a Board Certified Family Physician and President of People’s Healthcare, LLC, a medical practice designed to bring personalized medical care and innovative healthcare programs directly to people’s homes, businesses, schools and communities. She practices the full scope of primary care medicine for both adults and children, and is dedicated to improving access to healthcare by bringing medical care to people’s everyday lives in everyday places. For more information please call People’s Healthcare, LLC at 732-391-5269.
