The price of living a healthy life style
========================================
Today I read an article about the findings of an investigation
examining the influence of various lifestyle choices on health-care
costs.
Living a healthy life style leads to more years of good health, and
promoting a healthy life style was thought to be a means of reducing
overal health care costs.
According to the study, this is more complicated than it first
appears.
Healthy life style is most expensive
------------------------------------
Many smokers require treatment for lung cancer and other
smoking-related diseases, but they die at a younger age, resulting in
lower health care expenses in total.
Persons with obesity have greater average annual health care expenses
than persons without obesity, again this is offset by their shorter
life duration.
People who lead a healthy lifestyle live significantly longer and so
have a much higher risk of developing dementia. The annual cost of
caring for a dementia patient is significant, and as a result, their
total health care expenses are the highest.
These calculations are shockingly cold, but someone in the government
decided it was necessary for their decision-making.
