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The Forum > Article Comments > Get-off-your-butt money! > Comments

Get-off-your-butt money! : Comments

By Jeremy Sammut, published 21/9/2007

Medicare foots the bill: should we be able to escape the consequences of our lifestyles because open-heart surgeons can now unclog our arteries?

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The only way to reduce the pressure on costly acute care is to concentrate many more resources on keeping people well. Obesity becomes increasingly difficult to reduce over time. If it is not tackled early, it may never be tackled effectively. Only a new approach to primary health care, with health promotion and prevention programs located in multidiscipliary clinics in every community, working throughout a person's life cycle to prevent simple problems becoming complex and expensive to treat, can be effective in stimulating people to adopt healthier lifestyles. The burden of disease, and especially of chronic disease, falls most heavily on the least affluent, most socially disadvantaged - those least likely to be covered by US style health systems.
Posted by Johntas, Friday, 21 September 2007 11:40:04 AM
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Billie,

I'm not particularly interested in getting into a "mines bigger than yours" discussion, but I find it hard to believe that you paid more tax than me.

The CIS may have a notion of selling off medibank private but that has nothing to do with medicare, the general funding policy for medicare nor of the general medical concept that preventation is better than a cure.

Throwing money at something that wasn't prevented (when it should've been) is not good policy - it's the expensive downstream effect of very bad policy.

The author was right in saying:

"This means that today there is less reason than ever before to take care of your health, regardless of the enormous social cost, particularly when healthcare is largely “free”. While ever Medicare foots the bill and protects people from the consequences, this will not encourage people to modify their lifestyle.... social policy experts recognise that unless there are consequences, people will not change their behavior"

In this country, we have a behavioural problem which leads to preventable conditions like obesity. Rather than throw "bad" money at something that wasn't prevented, I'd rather throw "good" money at the prevention, especially given the benefits to society in general, not to mention the lower burden on the health system.
Posted by BN, Friday, 21 September 2007 12:01:46 PM
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billie, that's ex-serviceman or ret. serviceman. And it's no insult to me to take a hard look at a service that cost the taxpayer large and ever increasing dollars to maintain it's inefficiency, especially with a intellectual malaise with in general society that has the population showing poor personal management skills and the somewhat ridiculous idea that government should answer for their stupidity or clean up after them. You may be happy with the continual tax increases but, I for one whould like to see less dependency on government and a smaller taxation schedule.
I'd also like to see a change in general education that puts more emphasis on life skills. We have plenty of young people leaving university with no more clue than when they went in.
Posted by aqvarivs, Friday, 21 September 2007 2:39:31 PM
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Subsidise commercial weight loss programs? Are you joking? The only ones that work are those that offer advice on diet and exercise, and only then when that advice is put into consistent practice. Is there anyone in the western world that doesn't know that already? Can anyone seriously suggest that confidence tricks aimed at the ignorant and stupid such as Balin tea, fat re-distribution medications, visualisation therapy, useless homeopathic nostrums, spirulina tablets, hypnotism, massage, etc etc should be subsidised? Why not burn a few witches as well? If the government really wants to assist then the subsidy should work in reverse - subsidise non-use of medical facilities. Then people such as myself who eat properly, exercise consistently, and avoid alcohol and tobacco etc would get some reward for not going to the doctor. Let the fatties, pissheads, smokers etc lose out by being that way.
Posted by GYM-FISH, Friday, 21 September 2007 3:49:54 PM
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Gym-Fish. The perfect person has not been born yet. Keep up the excercises, they sound as though they make you Happy!
Posted by Kipp, Friday, 21 September 2007 5:43:20 PM
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Dear Kipp
I haven't the faintest idea what you are talking about, however I have no doubt that I would find your comment to be very clever and perceptive if only I could understand it! Thank you.
You give me fresh heart to carry on!
Posted by GYM-FISH, Friday, 21 September 2007 6:10:50 PM
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