A Dutch study was released earlier this week about the impact of smoking and obesity on the Dutch health care system.
Although the lead author of the study, Pieter van Baal, characterized the results as “a small surprise” it didn’t tell us anything that most people didn’t already know. Those who smoke and/or are obese do not live as long as healthy thin people. Although smokers and the overly pudgy develop some illnesses at rates greater than healthy people do, they save the health care system money by shuffling off this mortal coil earlier than their healthier counterparts. According to this study, the cost to the Dutch system of a thin non-smoker since the age of 20 averages about $417,000 while the cost of an obese person from 20 until death is about $371,000. Smokers are a real bargoon, with an average cost during their adult lives of $326,000.
The results of the study are really just common sense. The longer you live, the more health care you need. As van Baal pointed out, someone who does not smoke or is not obese is more likely to live to a ripe old age and suffer from serious expensive conditions and diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Canada’s public health system is a major part of what makes us Canadian. It is the key element that separates us from the Americans, although that might end if a certain candidate who will remain nameless wins the 2008 presidential election and introduces Hillarycare. In Canada we are proud live in a country where it is legal to pay someone for sex but illegal to pay a doctor for most medical services. We have reverence for a system that allows everyone to visit a doctor, no matter how trivial the purpose, without having to pay out of their pockets. The phrase, “giving up your life for your country” that once meant going off to war and fighting for freedom, now means dying on a hospital waiting list. Publicly funded health care has become a national obsession.
In recent years, governments at all level have been taking more and more steps that intrude on the private lives and freedoms of individuals. We are told what ingredients are allowable in our food. At the rate things are progressing, regulations as to what we can eat and drink and how we live will become more onerous. The best illustration of the growth of the nanny state is the relatively new ministry in Ontario with the trendy title of “Ministry of Health Promotion”. The government is becoming more and more intrusive into how we live our lives. For example, it will only be a matter of time before fast food restaurants will be regulated (or even worse, taxed more) to ensure that portions cannot exceed a certain size in order to fight the “War on Obesity”. As an aside, it’s amazing how much we love wars as long as they aren’t real ones that protect us from enemies seeking to destroy our way of life.
While it is often not explicitly stated, governments use the excuse that they have a right to dictate how we should live because they are the ones who have to finance the burgeoning health care costs. But as the Dutch study shows, it is the healthiest among us that are the bigger drain on the health care system. The young and middle aged who smoke or who are obese are much more likely to suffer a quick, painless death; painless at least to the public purse.
The lemmings who gladly follow the ever increasing restrictions that governments impose on its citizens should remember this study. It’s extremely unlikely that governments fail to realize that extending longevity by restricting freedoms are saving needed tax dollars. Imposing more laws and regulations on its citizens are not done to help the overextended health care system – it is nothing more than a power grab.
This study and its logical conclusions should not be forgotten. They should be used every time the government purports to regulate us for our own good. It really is all about power.
