Why governments must lead the fight against obesity - McKinsey Quarterly - Health Care - Strategy & Analysis

Why governments must lead the fight against obesity - McKinsey Quarterly - Health Care - Strategy & Analysis

Why do we insure health care? Food has a much bigger impact on our health, yet we don't insure food. With health insurance, we purchase a policy at a rate that ensures that all of the collective health expenses of the group can be paid for, that administrative costs are covered, and that our collective premiums provides a profit to the insurance company shareholders. Anyone who consumes less than the average amount is paying too much for their services. Someone in Minneapolis determines how much a doctor can charge for a service, and the doctor must figure out how many people he can pump through his office, and what he can bill the insurance company for to make a living. The consumer has few choices, and has little say in what they can consume.

If we applied this model to food, we'd all pay our money to a food insurance company at a rate above the average per person grocery bill, with additional money to cover administrative costs and profit. Once we pay our premium, we'd have no incentive to only take food that we need. Instead our incentive would be to make sure we get more food than our premium cost us. And this would drive the food insurance premiums up.

This is what happens with health insurance. We all pay a premium, and try to consume all of the medical services we can in order to ensure the policy is a good value, while staying within the limits of the policy. Feeling sick? Call the doctor.

A better system would be to eliminate routine health care insurance, and only insure catastrophic events. If I get sick, I could decide if I want to pay the doctor to confirm I have a cold, prescribe bed rest and liguids, and maybe an unnecessary anti-biotic, or if I want to wait a few days to see if I feel better. The costs would decrease, since a doctor can charge you twenty five cents for a Band-Aid^(r), and still make a profit. This is far less than the $4 the insurance company pays. The doctors would also be able to reduce staff, since they generally have someone who spends their day submitting claims to the many insurance companies.

I remember growing up, if I was sick, my parents would wait to see if I got better. If I didn't get better, they'd take me to the doctor. We were tight on money growing up, so I know my parents would often work out payment plans with the doctor. It was a personal relationship, and he always got paid.

McKinsey thinks government should lead the fight against obesity? What a crock. The politicians are just as obese as the general population, and have no solutions other than bigger government and more taxes.