A new study by the Sloan Center on Aging and Work at Boston College shows bad health behaviors can be extremely costly. (http://agingandwork.bc.edu/documents/FS23_HealthBehaviors_2009-06-10.pdf)
The report says age isn't the primary reason older workers become less healthy:
"According to analysis of data from the UnumProvident Disability Database (2005), “'medical costs are reported to rise at an estimated 25% from age 40 to 50 and 35% from age 50 to 60. Age is less a factor in health care costs than the presence of such risk factors as smoking, obesity, lack of exercise, and diabetes.
“'Health risk factors [such as smoking, obesity, uncontrolled blood pressure, etc.], double and triple the healthcare cost of the older worker. For example, the health cost differential between the low-risk 40 and 50 year old and the high-risk 40 and 50 year old is 3.0 and 2.8 times higher respectively. The health costs for the 60 year old with low risk is an estimated 2.4 times lower than the health risk for the high-risk 60 year old.”
It's very simple: the healthier you are, the lower your costs for healthcare. And it's true for both individuals and nations.
Comments
Which is precisely why I don't want the government in charge of healthcare. I don't need the party watching me do my mandatory exercises on webcam.
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