This post is part of the Youth Media Blog-a-thon on Healthcare hosted by Wiretap and YO! Youth Outlook- check out the links to see how you can get involved too!
How many uninsured Americans are living in bad health because they're afraid to get hurt while exercizing?
It's not a secret that being physically active improves your health. It keeps your cardiovascular system moving smoothly and reduces the risk of heart attacks, and it makes your muscular system stronger, so it can heal injuries more effectively.
According to multiple studies, regular moderate exercise will also make your body better at fighting off the common cold, the flu, and various other bugs that we all experience. The benefits are many and well known, and so is the thrill of playing a game or going for a bike ride-- so why would anyone become a couch potato?
In some cases it's pure laziness that makes people unhealthy, but just as often it's something more serious. Nearly 15% of Americans are living without health insurance. How does living without health insurance make you out of shape? It doesn't take much.
This is how healthcare SHOULD work... but it doesn't always.
Imagine this-- You're injured while bicycling, but you don't want to see a doctor because you don't have insurance. The condition gets worse and worse until you eventually wind up in the emergency room. You miss work and you have to pay the bills you were hoping to avoid.
If you didn't have healthcare in the first place, there's a good chance that you're employed on an hourly basis and won't receive any pay during this time, when you need it not only for living expenses but also for medical bills.
It can be difficult to receive any kind of disability pay unless you are in the care of a doctor who says that your condition is expected to last for more than one year or result in death-- that's another doctor visit, potentially paid for out of pocket, assuming that your condition meets the criteria.
And of course, there are lots of serious injuries that don't last for an entire year (most broken bones, for example), but in a scenario like that, you're simply out of luck.
Facing the possibility of a situation like this, it might seem easier to stay inside and rest up, hoping that your condition improves on its own, but more importantly hoping that you can keep making it in to work.
Perhaps you can manage the pain from a sport or work related injury just well enough to keep earning money, but not well enough to stay active during your free time. You avoid paying for hospital bills, but you fall into bad health as a result of your sedentary life style...
It's pretty awful. And I know, because it happened to me. I got injured just before my parents' health insurance stopped covering me, and I spent three months without care, just hoping my condition would improve.
Thankfully, the coverage has now been extended, but nobody should have to experience the uncertainty and worry of being injured and not receiving medical care.
The fear of unpayable debt and the uncertainty of living without a diagnosis make it easy to stay inside no matter how much we know about the health benefits of exercise.
What's broken in the health care system? Watch and learn!
I was watching the Daily Show last week, and former president Bill Clinton put the stats on American healthcare very simply--
"We're already spending sixteen percent of our income [on healthcare], nobody else is spending more than ten and a half ... but we aren't seeing a better health outcome".
You can watch the interview here, and listen to Mr. Clinton talk a little bit about the nitty gritty of health reform, but the point is obvious-- our current system is not working, and we need universal coverage.
This could mean a single payer system, a co-op system, or an expansion to Medicaid. I don't think I'm the only American who doesn't care which option wins out, as long as it works.
Our representative in Washington need to stop bickering over ideological positions and start getting more of us insured.
