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Seems the article has confused cause and effect. US health care costs haven't caused poor health. Poor health has caused US health care costs. 40% of American

by panny 7y ago

Seems the article has confused cause and effect. US health care costs haven't caused poor health. Poor health has caused US health care costs. 40% of American adults are obese. Obesity causes heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer. Diseases raise a person's health care costs. Costs do not make that person obese. It's also not a head tax, because healthy people don't pay it. Obese people need to accept personal responsibility for their condition and stop trying to leech off the system.

londons_explore 7y ago
It's very rare to hear someone say "I won't eat this burrito - I won't be able to afford the diabetes treatment in 50 years".
- anonuser123456 7y ago
  It's much worse than this. Dr: "Stop eating burritos and soda or you will need insulin" Average Joe: "Ok just give me insulin." Type 2 is largely reversible by diet and exercise. But people would rather just eat burritos and be sick.
- mac01021 7y ago
  Do burritos increase your risk of contracting diabetes?
Cougher 7y ago
The article does not say that health care costs cause poor health. It says that we have poor health in spite of our high health care costs. Also, you stated that poor health is the cause of high US health care costs and that's not true, either. It's one of the many conctributors. Also also, healthy people do pay it if they have health insurance and/or pay taxes that contribute to Medicare/Medicaid. I agree that obesity is a problem though. I also believe that many of these articles about the American healthcare system falsely attribute poorer health to our healthcare system rather than at least partially attributing it to unhealthy lifestyles.
- knubie 7y ago
  > The article does not say that health care costs cause poor health. It says that we have poor health in spite of our high health care costs. I think the way it's presented in the article ("health outcomes") strongly implies that healthcare quality in the US is not as good as other countries with lower costs.

by panny 7y ago

londons_explore 7y ago

It's very rare to hear someone say "I won't eat this burrito - I won't be able to afford the diabetes treatment in 50 years".

anonuser123456 7y ago
It's much worse than this. Dr: "Stop eating burritos and soda or you will need insulin" Average Joe: "Ok just give me insulin." Type 2 is largely reversible by diet and exercise. But people would rather just eat burritos and be sick.
mac01021 7y ago
Do burritos increase your risk of contracting diabetes?

Cougher 7y ago

The article does not say that health care costs cause poor health. It says that we have poor health in spite of our high health care costs. Also, you stated that poor health is the cause of high US health care costs and that's not true, either. It's one of the many conctributors. Also also, healthy people do pay it if they have health insurance and/or pay taxes that contribute to Medicare/Medicaid. I agree that obesity is a problem though. I also believe that many of these articles about the American healthcare system falsely attribute poorer health to our healthcare system rather than at least partially attributing it to unhealthy lifestyles.

knubie 7y ago
> The article does not say that health care costs cause poor health. It says that we have poor health in spite of our high health care costs. I think the way it's presented in the article ("health outcomes") strongly implies that healthcare quality in the US is not as good as other countries with lower costs.