"Why Don't Health Insurers Encourage Healthier Eating?"
Many of the diseases that cause a constant drain
on health care budgets can be prevented by proper nutrition.
So why aren't the big payors getting involved?
I mean, even like a 1% decline in excess body fat could
alone save tens of billions.
You'd think at least the health insurance industry would try
to get people to eat healthier to try to pay out less money.
Well, one could say the insurance industry actually benefits from
high health care costs because these rising costs are simply
passed on to both individuals and employers in terms of
higher premiums, and insurers take a fixed percentage
of these premiums as increasing profits.
They get a piece of the pie, so the bigger the pie —
the unhealthier everyone is — the bigger their piece.
As such, insurers have not done as much as they could
to help reduce health care costs because lower costs
would hurt their bottom line.
What if there was a medication that could successfully treat
and even reverse heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure,
and many other chronic conditions without any negative side effects and
offered the promise of dramatically reduced health care costs?
Imagine all the advertising there would be to promote it.
Imagine how much they would charge.
A drug that could not just treat but cure diabetes
and these other diseases?
Then what if you were told that medication exists today,
is available to everyone in unlimited quantities at a low cost,
but the vast majority of the American public has never heard about it.
You want a solution to significantly reduce health care costs?
The solution is to use food as medical treatment,
specifically foods made from minimally processed plants.
One of the main barriers is simply the current widespread belief
that once someone has a chronic condition,
such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes,
there's very little that can be done to actually reverse the disease,
and the best outcome possible is to maintain the condition
so that it just doesn't get any worse.
The fact that a whole food plant-based approach provides
a safe, effective, low-cost alternative to not just eliminating symptoms
but potentially reversing the underlying condition
without drugs or surgery
is unknown to a vast majority of Americans.
In contrast to the pharmaceutical industry that spends large sums
to market new drugs, there are not big profits in promoting
a plant-based diet.
The politics surrounding healthcare is who's going to pay for it,
instead of what kind of healthcare is best?
And the evidence is overwhelming that a whole food, plant-based diet
provides the best opportunity to not only reduce the growth in spending,
but actually decrease total health care costs more than any drug,
medical procedure, insurance reform, or provider payment model out there.
Thankfully, the word is spreading.
A review of the evidence published in Kaiser Permanente's journal
concluded that physicians should consider recommending
a plant-based diet to all their patients, especially those
with high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or obesity.
Kaiser has followed up with user friendly guides
(freely available online)
for both physicians and patients, explaining the benefits
and practical aspects of implementing a plant-based diet.
So hey, why aren't all insurers sending out such information
to all their members?
You know how all the drug ads are like,
"Ask your doctor if this drug is right for you."
Well, members could be prompted to ask their physicians
about the ability of plant-based diets to reduce or eliminate
prescription drug use, reverse disease.
Though, of course, these materials would also have
to list all the side effects. Side effects include
increased energy, lower blood pressure, improved digestion,
all while eating unlimited quantities of satisfying food.
Ask your doctor if plants are right for you.