Episode 5 Transcript
The Hidden Financial Costs of Our Health Today
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Nutrition is the Key to Health. Where we begin uncovering the true financial cost of healthcare and the effects it will have on your pocketbook.
I want you to ask yourself one question, Am I healthy? Be honest. I know we all might have a different definition of health. Are you on any medication or have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, autoimmune disorders, or cancer?
Disclaimer, I am not a physician, nurse, registered dietician, physical therapist, or mental health professional. This is my story and what I have done and learned over the course of my journey. If you plan to start a diet or exercise program, please get approval from your doctor.
Okay, let’s jump in.
According to the CDC, costs of chronic diseases are reaching all-time highs.
Heart Disease and Stroke account for 877,500 deaths every year. This makes up 1/3 of all deaths. The economic toll is estimated at 216B dollars, with another 147B dollars in lost productivity on the job.
The costs of cancer continues to rise and is expected to peak at over 230B dollars by 2030. I am going to add a footnote here and say that the cost will most likely be far more than this.
More than 37M people have diabetes and another 96M adults are pre-diabetic, which puts them at risk for Type 2 Diabetes.
The complications from diabetes are endless. The disease can lead to heart disease, kidney failure, and blindness. In 2017, the cost to this disease was 327B dollars in medical and lost productivity. Remember, it is now 2024, so the numbers have just grown.
Obesity affects 20% of children and almost 50% of adults. This is the gateway for a disease progression that might include heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and kidney failure.
Obesity alone in the US costs 173B dollars every year.
Other notable stats include:
Arthritis, which is a form of autoimmune disease. It is estimated that 1 in 4 people in the US have it. It is the leading cause of work disability in the US and one of the most common chronic conditions. In 2013, it alone cost the US over 305B in medical costs and lost wage earnings. Remember, we are now in 2024.
Alzheimer’s Disease, a type of dementia is irreversible and affects over 5.7M Americans, including 1 in 10 adults over the age of 65. So, if these numbers are true, that means that 9 of the 10 adults diagnosed with the disease are under 65. That is a scary statistic. It costs the US over 305B dollars. By 2050, the CDC is projecting these costs to be more than 1.1T dollars. This should indicate to you that this disease is a freight train running out of control.
What are some of the triggers of these diseases? I am glad you asked. They are:
· Obesity
· Smoking
· Physical Inactivity
· Excessive Alcohol Use
There is your roadmap people. These are all very dangerous lifestyle characteristics that we all share.
Here are my thoughts related to my journey and what I know to be true for me. Inflammation is the root evil that powers the train. It is the coal or the catalyst, if you will.
Most inflammation starts in the gut. I can say that mine did. I was diagnosed with IBS at a very young age. I didn’t know or even think of the years of havoc it could do to my body. I just thought of the here and now. It was an inconvenience. If I ate, I would need to be by a restroom. Big deal right? Well, it turns out it was. With the IBS and gastric dumping, it would prove to be a nemesis for being able to absorb nutrients properly. Hell, what nutrients? I was eating the Standard American Diet and veggies were not on my list. I was meat and potatoes, eggs and fried foods. I lived out of drive-thru, like we all do. I drank Diet Coke, instead of water, then I later discovered the espresso drinks with syrup and cream. These are very high-sugar drinks. All of this increased my weight and increased the inflammation in my body. Autoimmune diseases began coming one by one. High blood pressure and pre-diabetes hit, along with insulin resistance. Multiple vitamin deficiencies ensued, which put me in a neuro-deficient state. Then the cancer came, and now the heart disease.
If you look back on your journey to where you are now, write down in your journal, your symptoms and diet as far back as you can remember, and I think you will have a similar path.
The medical industry is not here to cure you, they are here to make a profit off you and forward the science and technology. That includes hospitals. Hell, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. They have an endless source of participants that have nowhere to go. It’s all about the bottom line. You only have a small percentage of doctors and nurses who truly want to serve and help their patients.
I am going to share with you my journey and the cost of my cancer.
Before I was diagnosed with cancer, I had four years of flares with my autoimmune disorders. Seems like every time I went to the Rheumatologist, they added a new disorder to my list and a new medication. This was missed time off work. I have not had a vacation since I was in my early twenties. That is forty years. Why? Because I knew that I had to save all my PTO for doctor appointments and sick time. That was just my lot in life. Thank goodness my Epilepsy has always been controlled except for the wonderful doctor who led me into Grand Mal Seizures.
When I was diagnosed with cancer, I worked for one of the largest healthcare systems in America, as a supply chain manager. I had to take FMLA during my treatment. It was brutal and came with a great many complications. Which meant, I had to pay 102% of all benefit costs while off work to keep my health insurance. That equated to over 1000 dollars every month. When you are only pulling in 50% of your pay on STD, that was difficult. My bills fell behind and so did everything else. I had just received one of my chemo regiments and just made it home. I remember this like it was yesterday. I was on the couch with a trashcan nearby. I got a phone call, it was HR stating that I was no longer employed by the hospital. I still had all my surgeries and radiation to go. I had run out of time due to my losing protection under FMLA. They fired me 2 days later. I had worked my butt off for this company for over 61/2 years, and they just turned me off like a switch.
When you are ill or have an ill family member who is on your insurance, you are impacting their bottom line. When contract negotiations come up every year, the insurance companies look at three things mainly, First, the number of employees, the level of benefits, and the last year’s financials on claims. Those things can be a big determiner of what that company will pay for the upcoming policy for their employees. So the benefit levels are cut, and they pass it on by premium increases to the employees. So, the company doesn’t tend to keep sick people with chronic conditions. The first opportunity they get, whether through workforce realignment or layoffs, you will most likely be one of the ones to get cut.
In my most recent job, I was also a Supply Chain Manager for a large healthcare organization. I had another cancer scare and we were trying to determine if the breast cancer had returned. I had also just been hospitalized for my newly discovered heart condition. The new meds I was on were expensive. They knew that I could be potentially taking FMLA, and they needed to find a reason to cut me, so I was targeted. Even though I could disprove their allegations, I was let go. I am 60 years old and unemployed. I have gone through all of my retirement and savings and the bills continue to mount. The stress of it all I can tell you is outrageous. No one wants to hire a 60-year-old female with medical issues.
During my cancer, it was a difficult journey. July 4th was approaching. I had to get on the schedule for my chemo. I had already been over 90-days outside the diagnosis window and my tumors were growing at an insane rate. They whisked me into the financial office. I had no money. They told me that they would not start the chemo until I came up with my full out-of-pocket max of 6,000 dollars. They were holding my chemo hostage for the upfront payment. My choices, I could either die or come up with the money. The only thing I had was a credit card. I handed it to not so nice lady on the other side of that desk. She had awards all over her office for a job well done. His sole purpose was to squeeze blood from a turnip for the profit of this facility. I attempted to go to the teaching facility I had always had in the past. They are an NCI hospital. My insurance which I was paying over 1000 a month for was not in their network. This was a no-go. I called my county hospital and asked. They could get me in, but the wait would be about 7 months, and I would still owe out-of-network costs. I reached out to organizations that had donations and filled out all of their paperwork, only to be denied. Their funds were no longer available. I was told I could wait until the next year and try again. I would be dead by then.
My brothers and sisters didn’t offer, and I didn’t ask. The credit card was my only option. I placed it on the desk and it was run for 6000 dollars. That nearly maxed the card. I didn’t know how I was going to pay the monthly payments, but I could get my needed chemo started.
I managed to get my chemo and went sooner than I should have into my two surgeries, just because I knew my deductibles and out-of-pocket max would start all over on January 1. When it was time for my radiation, rinse and repeat. They wouldn’t do it unless I came up with 6000 more dollars. I placed my last credit card down. This would almost max this card out. I put the rest on a payment plan, which I am still paying for to this day.
In between all of this, I had specialty drugs that were not covered by the insurance. My Neulasta shot to boost the red blood cell production and keep me in my chemo, which I got each week was 14,000 dollars alone. This was covered but others were not.
A chronic disease can become a huge monster and the cause of your financial decline. It’s like trying to tread water with a 20-pound weight around your neck. You will run out of steam sooner rather than later, and it is difficult to recover because the disease state of your body only progresses if you do nothing to help your body.
But, you can help yourself right now by looking at your diet, increasing exercise, stopping smoking, and curtailing alcohol consumption. Those things will add to your financial future, not take money away from it. If you stop eating the Standard American Diet and replace it with more veggies, fruits, whole grains, and plant-based proteins, you can help your health not to progress as fast. You will be getting vital nutrients your body needs for repair, and potentially being able to stop some of your medications under a doctor’s supervision.
If you are not purchasing alcohol, it will be like getting a raise. The same goes for smoking. What do you spend each month on cigarettes and alcohol? If you are not buying cigarettes, tobacco, or vaping products, there will be more money in your pocket at the end of the month.
Chew on the things I just said. Take an inventory of your habits. What can you change that would positively impact your health today?
I hope I have given you some encouragement to take those next steps to a healthier lifestyle.
You can also find me on my blog at nutiritionisthekeytohealth.com
See you in the next episode.