10 Ways to save on Health care Costs

Jay Parkinson just published an interesting post on how to reduce health care costs. (he is the author of the prescription I posted a couple of days ago)

As his patient in Manhattan, a person can log into his site, let him know why you want to be seen, schedule an appointment, pay for the visit using PayPal, and then Dr. Parkinson shows up at your home for your appointment. Neat, huh? No more waiting the waiting room. No more being subjected to all of the germs and unfriendly, overworked office staff. But here's the thing -- he won't bill your insurance. You pay out of pocket. The upside? Lower costs of the visit.

Would you pay out of pocket if it cost you less?

What if going to the doctor was just like ordering at a restaurant -- there is a menu, a schedule of fees and you get to order a la carte.

The reason I am bringing this up (on an Eating Coach blog) is because it has direct application to EC and the mindset that clients bring to health care and weight management.

This is what I have found:

1. Many (if not most) people coming to my fitness facility feel they are paying enough per month already and will not spend more on a series of Eating Coach classes. **Side note: a large percentage of members list losing weight as their primary driver for joining the facility.**

2. The mindset, for many people, is: if insurance is not paying for a service, they will not pay out-of-pocket for it either. People have told me that if a program costs $350 and the insurance company will pay $200 (leaving them with $150 out of pocket) they would pay for the program. But because a program costs $150 and insurance doesn't cover it, they will not pay for it. --Why is that?

We are paying, indiviudally and collectively, in many different directions for our weight gain. We (as a nation) spent $45 billion on diet stuff (books, diet pills, diet food, programs, etc) last year!! This is not counting all of the medical expenses related to weight gain (diabetic medications, joint replacements, physical therapy, surgeries, blood pressure meds, etc). And I won't even get into lost productivity!

With the healthcare insurance debates going on in the House and Senate, with the current state of the ecomony, and with the cost of medical goods and services, I think it behooves us to reconsider our long-held beliefs about the purpose of health insurance and how we are spending our healthcare dollars.

If you spend $300 out-of-pocket today and it saves you that much in co-pays for your blood pressure med over the next 12 months -- would that be a worthwhile Return on Investment?

Now, if you factored in the improvements to your health and sense of well being, wouldn't that sweeten the pot?

So much of the cultural focus on weight has to do with aethstetic. Unless you are a professional model (or want to be), an actor, a spokesperson, Vanna White, etc., from a financial prospective, aethstetics is a secondary concern. Of primary concern should be the ability to maximize your quality of your life, the extra physical energy you will get because you are not carrying extra physical weight around all day, and the extra emotional energy you get from not WORRYING/FEELING GUILTY/STRESSING/FEELING DEPRESSED, etc. from weighing more than you feel you should.

Think about the AMAZING things you could accomplish with increased health, energy and sense of well-being. And all because you have shifted your thinking on what healthcare is, who should pay for it, and what the goal of healthcare should be (one of these days I will rant on Why We Should be Actively Maintaining our Health! -- but not today).

Give it some thought: What are you really worth? How do you really want to live? Are you willing to pay to optimize your life or do you want to let someone else make those decisions for you?

Carpe Diem, my friends.