Do insurance companies “really” want us to be healthy?

Posted on 02/20/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

You would think so, because they would have less claims to pay…but that’s not how the industry works…read on.

While reading an article written about a health insurance insider in the New York Times today, I was once again reminded of just how futile our collective industry-medicine-government efforts are in terms of solving our health care problem.

J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

Everyone in the Western world knows that the ever rising, unsustainable cost of health care is arguably our single biggest problem. Yet, no one in power hardly ever mentions health promotion. As Dr. T. Colin Campbell states in the new movie Forks over Knives, “if everyone ate primarily whole plants,  the cost of health care in the U.S. could be reduced by 70 to 80%.

So why don’t the insurance companies put more effort and money behind wellness, health promotion and disease prevention? Wouldn’t they save money on claims if people were healthier? The short answer is NO; the health insurance industry would be reduced by 80% to “accident only” insurance if everyone were vibrantly healthy. It’s all about risk; if there is no risk, there is no need to have insurance for it.

I am reminded here of an anecdote in one of Dr. John McDougall’s newsletters. After having success in reversing heart disease with his dietary intervention program (costing $5,000), he investigated the possibility of having his treatment program covered by the insurance companies. Rather than pay for a $50,000 procedure that was a temporary fix at best, why not spend 90% less and fix the problem for good? But the insurance companies turned him down. As explained by one agent, there are basically two reasons:

  1. Patient Involvement. “The patient has to modify behavior for the $5k treatment; but only has to lie down on the operating table for the $50k treatment.”
  2. The Health Care $$ Pie. “You don’t understand the business McDougall. We (the insurance companies) get a piece of the pie…and the bigger the pie, the more we get.”

We get a piece of the pie…and the bigger the pie, the more we get. That one statement explains just about everything you need to know about why our total “health care system” is in such a mess. It’s sobering to realize that with some 25 million people working in that system in the U.S., not a single one of those people has a financial incentive for patients to get healthy and avoid disease.

We get a piece of the pie -- the bigger the pie, the more we get. if everyone gets healthy, we're out of business. If there is no risk of disease, there is no need for insurance.

Think about that statement while reading about all the blah, blah, blah from the insider in the article below.

If you like what you see here, you may wish to join our periodic mailing list. Also, for help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4-Leaf page. From the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

If you’d like to order our book on Amazon,  visit our BookStore now.

—J. Morris Hicks…blogging daily at HealthyEatingHealthyWorld.com

PS: Occasionally an unauthorized ad may appear beneath a blog post. It is controlled by WordPress (a totally free hosting service). I do not approve or personally benefit whatsoever from any ad that might ever appear on this site. I apologize and urge you to please disregard. 

Posted in Cost of Health Care, Insurance | 1 Comment

For men only…killing two birds with one stone

Posted on 02/19/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

Erectile Dysfunction Can Save Your Life

If you are a male and over the age of 20 and have been eating the typical American diet for your entire life, the odds are near 80% that you now have coronary artery disease…according to Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn of the Cleveland Clinic, author of Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. One of the first symptoms that you have the disease is a heart attack; another early symptom is that you are diagnosed with E.D. (erectile dysfunction).

J. Morris Hicks turns the mike over to Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn at a yacht club in CT

As Dr. Esselstyn has found out with his patients, it turns out that coronary artery disease and erectile dysfunction are the same disease — restricted blood flow in your arteries. The rich western diet consisting of meat and dairy three meals a day causes plaques to form in arteries throughout your body, not just the ones in and around your heart. We’re talking 100,000 miles of arteries in the adult body.

So what about saving your life with E.D.? Well, since they’re the same disease, if you cure one of them, you simultaneously cure the other one. You may know that Dr. Esselstyn and other prominent M.D.’s have reversed advanced heart disease in close to 100% of their patients — with nothing but a change of diet, simply moving to a whole foods, plant-based diet with less than 15% of one’s total calories coming from fat. So here’s the deal:

If you’re lucky enough to get E.D. before your first heart attack — and you’re lucky enough to learn about the power of plant-based nutrition to reverse it; then you’ll be cleaning those plaques out of ALL of your arteries at the same time, not just the ones that have got you started thinking lately about little blue pills for the rest of your life.

For more on this topic, look for E.D. on the drop-down list of over 25 categories in the right column. If you like what you see here, you may wish to join our periodic mailing list. Also, for help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4-Leaf page. From the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

If you’d like to order our book on Amazon,  visit our BookStore now.

—J. Morris Hicks…blogging daily at HealthyEatingHealthyWorld.com

PS: Occasionally an unauthorized ad may appear beneath a blog post. It is controlled by WordPress (a totally free hosting service). I do not approve or personally benefit whatsoever from any ad that might ever appear on this site. I apologize and urge you to please disregard. 

Posted in Erectile Dysfunction, Health in General, Heart Disease, Prevention | Leave a comment

Meal Engineering 101…turning average meals into great meals

Posted on 02/18/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

Learn how to get a truly health-promoting meal — anywhere; anytime

The "Big Picture" Guy

Being a “big picture” kind of guy, I always strive to first get my arms around the big picture myself — then do my best to make it simple enough to be easily understood by the average 8th grader.

With that thought in mind, we developed our “4-Leaf” health promotion program which is being introduced in our book later this year. The concept is very simple — work on maximizing the kinds of food that your mother probably told you to eat more of — fruits and vegetables. As Dr. Colin Campbell has often said, the closer we get to a diet consisting of whole plants, the better off we will be.” In our program, our highest “4-Leaf” level of eating begins when you consume over 80% of your calories from whole plants – in nature’s package.

This may seem excessive to some, but not if you accept the premise that whole plants are the natural diet for our species.  If you accept that premise, then arguably, the optimal diet for humankind would be 100% from whole plants. But, in the interest of reasonability and practicality, we chose 80% as our target threshold. Achieving that threshold will be a huge change for most people as the typical western diet derives far less than 10% of its calories from whole plants – in nature’s package. So, in keeping with our commitment to simplicity, our entire program can be summed up in two words and two numbers…whole plants and 80-20:

  • Whole Plants: Try to get over 80% of your calories from whole plants — in nature’s package
  • As for the 20: Try to keep the daily percent of your calories from fat (whether from animal or vegetable sources) under 20%…As Dr. Esselstyn says, the optimal is closer to 10% (average American is closer to 40% from fat).

Simple enough, right? So, why do people have trouble eating this way? For starters, it is almost impossible to order a “4-Leaf” meal off the menu in 99% of the restaurants in the western world. The same goes for 99% of the recipes. Two problems abound: too much animal-based foods and too much fat, mostly in the form of meat, eggs, oil or cheese. So, with virtually ALL of our easy-to-order meal choices deriving well over 30 % of their calories from fat (according to Dr. Esselstyn, optimal is closer to 10%), is it any wonder that we are a nation of mostly overweight or obese people?

If you like what you see here, you may wish to join our periodic mailing list. Also, for help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4-Leaf page. From the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

If you’d like to order our book on Amazon,  visit our BookStore now.

—J. Morris Hicks…blogging daily at HealthyEatingHealthyWorld.com

PS: Occasionally an unauthorized ad may appear beneath a blog post. It is controlled by WordPress (a totally free hosting service). I do not approve or personally benefit whatsoever from any ad that might ever appear on this site. I apologize and urge you to please disregard. 


Posted in Healthy Eating 101, Recipes & meals | 1 Comment