Why Does Health Insurance Cost So Much?

by Michael Ertel

Why does health insurance cost so much? Year after year, many of
the articles that appear in print detail the specific factors
driving the cost of healthcare.

These factors include: general inflation, advances in drugs and
other medical devices, rising hospital and doctor expenses,
government mandates, increased consumer demand, litigation,
fraud, and cost shifting.

The basic answer is that a magic bullet to solve the cost of
insurance does not exist because the real difficulty is
controlling the cost of healthcare. A simple way to dramatically
decrease the dollars spent on healthcare is to reduce the demand
for healthcare.

I have seen estimates that up to 40% of all healthcare related
expenses result from preventable conditions. These preventable
conditions are caused by lifestyle choices such as tobacco,
obesity, stress, lack of exercise and poor diet.

Most of us, myself included, make lifestyle choices everyday
that eventually increase our demand for healthcare. We are never
going to be able to totally eliminate all lifestyle related
healthcare costs. However, improved lifestyle choices would
cause a dramatic reduction in demand. This would then result in
a similar reduction in the dollars spent on healthcare.

Lower demand for healthcare would result in lower health
insurance costs, increased productivity, and reduced
absenteeism. If your organization has not done so already, your
organizational leaders need to seriously consider the benefits
of health promotion and disease prevention programs. Your return
on investment will most likely be as high as 2:1 in the first
year.

About the author:
Michael Ertel is the founder of
http://www.MedicalInsuranceNow.com which is a website that
assists individuals and small business owners by providing side
by side comparisons of health insurance alternatives.

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