http://thefuturewell.com We design services and products that create health and happiness. Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:42:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://thefuturewell.com We design services and products that create health and happiness. Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:42:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://thefuturewell.com We design services and products that create health and happiness. Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:42:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://thefuturewell.com/2010/02/14/one-of-the-leading-products-of-the-american-food-industry-has-become-patients-for-the-american-health-care-industry/ http://thefuturewell.com/2010/02/14/one-of-the-leading-products-of-the-american-food-industry-has-become-patients-for-the-american-health-care-industry/#comments Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:42:06 +0000 Jay Parkinson http://thefuturewell.com/?p=455 "Even under the weaker versions of health care reform now on offer, health insurers would be required to take everyone at the same rates, provide a standard level of coverage and keep people on their rolls regardless of their health. Terms like “pre-existing conditions” and “underwriting” would vanish from the health insurance rulebook — and, when they do, the relationship between the health insurance industry and the food industry will undergo a sea change... The moment these new rules take effect, health insurance companies will promptly discover they have a powerful interest in reducing rates of obesity and chronic diseases linked to diet. A patient with Type 2 diabetes incurs additional health care costs of more than $6,600 a year; over a lifetime, that can come to more than $400,000. Insurers will quickly figure out that every case of Type 2 diabetes they can prevent adds $400,000 to their bottom line. Suddenly, every can of soda or Happy Meal or chicken nugget on a school lunch menu will look like a threat to future profits... Passing a health care reform bill, no matter how ambitious, is only the first step in solving our health care crisis. To keep from bankrupting ourselves, we will then have to get to work on improving our health — which means going to work on the American way of eating. But even if we get a health care bill that does little more than require insurers to cover everyone on the same basis, it could put us on that course. For it will force the industry, and the government, to take a good hard look at the elephant in the room and galvanize a movement to slim it down." via Michael Pollan (author of the excellent book In Defense of Food) image via Brian Rea ]]> http://thefuturewell.com/2010/02/14/one-of-the-leading-products-of-the-american-food-industry-has-become-patients-for-the-american-health-care-industry/feed/ 0