WOD:
Front squat
3-3-3-3-3
12 minute
Burpee pull-up ladder
Emily finds the overhead position of the American Kettlebell Swing during the "Helen-o-ween" WOD.
Should your health insurance cost less if you are more fit?
by Amy Hollingsworth
An article in the Seattle Times today posed this question. Highlights include comments by Safeway CEO, Steve Burd, who says health insurance should be just like car insurance – better drivers get better rates. A recent editorial in the Wall Street Journal has Whole Foods CEO, John Mackey, ringing in on the debate as well. He feels with higher deductable insurance plans, individuals are more likely to be held accountable for the intial outlay of their own cash for healthcare expenses. He also goes so far as to state he doesn’t believe health care is an intrinsic right. There is also the argument that if you are obese, you should pay extra for some things, such as ambulance services.
The healthcare reform debate is alive and well. Where does being healthy fit into the argument? Do these measures help people become healthier? Do they lead to discrimination?
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95# for the squats. 10 on the burpee pull-up ladder. Brandi, you killed it! Great job!
13 rounds would have killed me too! Thanks for all of the cheering support from you guys tonight…it made all of the difference!
I meant Brandi rocked all 12 rounds, although I think she could have taken on 13.
205# for 3 reps, then 12 rounds of the Burpee Pull-up ladder. 13 rounds would have killed me.
Kudos to Brandi who also rocked all 13 rounds.
A large portion of the population could have or can prevent developing what are called diseases of civilization (diabetes, hypertension and stroke, obesity, some forms of cancer, constipation, hemorrhoids…) by simply eating correctly and getting exercise regularly. In his book “Good Calories, Bad Calories”, Gary Taubes goes into great detail on just about every study performed on nutrition from the late 1800′s to present and explains how politcal influence helped develope the low fat diet, effects of carbs on diabetes, triglycerides and colesterol. He also covers the role of insulin in the body. It’s a long dry read (about 450 pgs.), but a lot of great information. I believe that prevention is becoming more the focus and there should be insurance rates for people taking the time and putting forth the effort to live a healthy, disease preventing lifestyle.
Okay, I’m going to kick this debate off. I’m trying to temper my comments a bit, because this does get me a bit heated. The way I see it…this just makes a heck of a lot of sense. The analogy to car insurance was made several times in these articles and it’s exactly right. They also give price breaks to young drivers who get good grades. Hell, I remember once getting some kind of deal at Chuck E. Cheese because I got good grades. Was that unfair to the kids who didn’t get good grades? No! I applied myself and was rewarded for it. If you didn’t, well sucks for you, try harder next time.
Now, I do think that there is potential for this type of program to be misused. If they don’t get their parameters straight they may be disqualify someone for the wrong reasons. Case in point, there are plenty of people who have fantastic blood profiles, great blood pressure and low cholesterol/triglycerides levels, can lift a house and outrun 85% of their peers but are still overweight. Clearly this person is healthier than someone who is slender but can’t run around the block or lift their own body weight and eats crap food and drinks soda all day long (these people exist, I know many who fit this bill). So, I think it’s a good idea to give breaks to those are making significant effort in improving their health, but the plan needs to be implemented correctly.