Along with a wealth of ideas relating to how to expand health care to more people in Florida, comes the need to rein in both private spending for Florida health insurance plans and government spending for health care.
One approach addresses both problems. Programs that encourage physical activity and structured exercise can save money all around. Healthy individuals not only pay less for FL health insurance, but they also cost hospitals, the state and the federal government less in terms of uncompensated health care.
Individuals spend less on premiums because they’re not charged extra for pre-existing medical problems. Until 2014, Florida health insurance providers can continue to refuse coverage for those with existing health care needs for conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other conditions that need expensive medical care.
While people are being denied access to affordable health insurance coverage , they are forced to depend on emergency medical treatment that may be uncompensated. That means hospitals can’t collect and taxpayers end up funding medical care at the most expensive level. Spending more for preventive care could lessen the need for such uncompensated care.
Doctor Speaks Out On Improving Florida Health Insurance
As the director of the University of Florida Institute on Aging, Marco Pahor, M.D., urges legislators to use physical fitness not just to boost the health of the state’s population, but also to support the budget. Pahor says, “Cumulative work over the past few decades provides solid evidence for public policymakers to consider structured physical activity and exercise programs as worthy of insurance reimbursement.”
Pahor contributed an editorial to the Journal of the American Medical Association in connection with reports on multiple clinical trials that analyzed how exercise and physical activity improve the control of blood glucose levels. That’s not just crucial for diabetics, but it can also help the scores of undiagnosed people who are considered to be pre-diabetic and are on the brink of becoming diabetic.
Similar studies also link exercise with improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides as well as cognition. Other evidence shows how exercise leads to a reduced risk for cardiovascular problems and a reduction in premature deaths while simultaneously improving quality of life.
Should Florida Health Insurance Reimburse For Physical Activity Programs?
Exercise programs have been proven to be cost effective in averting several life-threatening conditions that add up to expensive medical interventions, which are not always successful. Not only can exercise help you spend less for Florida health insurance premiums, but it may save your life by preventing a life-threatening condition where no amount of medical intervention will be able to keep you breathing.
This idea is already being endorsed by some insurance providers, which offer lowered fees for fitness center memberships, work with personal trainers or exercise classes. Not surprisingly, lower increases in health care costs have been associated to these kinds of benefits.
For example, older adults who utilized health club facilities at least a couple of times a week for a two-year period were shown to have $1,252 less in health care costs during that second year than folks who only used health clubs less often than weekly.
Does Your Florida Health Insurance Help You Workout?
If you can’t find an affordable plan that contains benefits such as health club discounts, even a little exercise can have a big payoff. Things you can do at home such as going for a walk or climbing stairs reduce a number of health risks and the benefits are greatest for those who are obese or overweight. When researchers in New York City looked at the final results of just an hour a week of low-intensity exercise, they saw benefits for people across a variety of distinct ethnic groups and weight ranges.
As chairman of medicine at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia Dr. David Weinberg puts it, “Exercise is a good thing. It matters in sick people and black people and skinny people and overweight people.”
While you may still have to develop your own exercise plan, any new health insurance plan will help you protect your health in a new way. In Florida, health insurance plans bought after health care reform pay for all recommended procedures that can prevent disease. Screening procedures to identify cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other life-threatening conditions are covered with no out-of-pocket costs.