Eat, Drink, Die Early- and Save Us Money

This sounds like the start of an interesting sci-fi story:

Fat people cheaper to treat, study says

By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer

LONDON - Preventing obesity and smoking can save lives, but it doesn't save money, researchers reported Monday. It costs more to care for healthy people who live years longer, according to a Dutch study that counters the common perception that preventing obesity would save governments millions of dollars.

"It was a small surprise," said Pieter van Baal, an economist at the Netherlands' National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, who led the study. "But it also makes sense. If you live longer, then you cost the health system more."

I didn't think being healthy was all about saving money. I thought it was about living better and longer. I can just see it now, though. The perfect plan to save Social Security. Mail a kit to all Americans filled with juicy cholesterol, fatty items and lots of sugar and sweets.

"The benefits of obesity prevention may not be seen immediately in terms of cost savings in tomorrow's budget, but there are long-term gains," said Neville Rigby, spokesman for the International Association for the Study of Obesity. "These are often immeasurable when it comes to people living longer and healthier lives."

Van Baal described the paper as "a book-keeping exercise," and said that governments should recognize that successful smoking and obesity prevention programs mean that people will have a higher chance of dying of something more expensive later in life.

"Lung cancer is a cheap disease to treat because people don't survive very long," van Baal said. "But if they are old enough to get Alzheimer's one day, they may survive longer and cost more."

It's amazing what money can lead us to think about. Actually this story has some fairly scary implications. The fact that a dollar amount can be utilized to discuss these kind of issues is what is most scary. No, nobody is going to start charging a higher premium for health insurance if you're healthy. But there will be some way or another than we will be paying for being healthy.

The other thing is, actually, that I have a hunch that there is something wrong somewhere in the numbers and method. Or there was some assumption made that skewed the stats. One of those may be that whatever will get you later in life will be all that more expensive than dying younger. I'm not sure that holds true.

But as far as I'm concerned you can't put a dollar figure on either good health or the extra opportunities you have to earn (and spend) money or produce some really good benefits for society. That is the missing piece, of course. In those extra years before the "more expensive" death, you will have put more back into the world than you are now taking out.

As I write all this I can't believe I have been hooked by it and am even trying to justify another point of view. In the end the bottom line is not a bottom line. It is the life lived whether it's 40 years or 80 years. Life itself is worth the cost!