[p2p-research] Big Food vs. Big Insurance | CommonDreams.org

[Paul D. Fernhout]

From:
   http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/09/10
"""
No one disputes that the $2.3 trillion we devote to the health care industry 
is often spent unwisely, but the fact that the United States spends twice as 
much per person as most European countries on health care can be 
substantially explained, as a  study released last month says, by our being 
fatter. Even the most efficient health care system that the administration 
could hope to devise would still confront a rising tide of chronic disease 
linked to diet.
   That's why our success in bringing health care costs under control 
ultimately depends on whether Washington can summon the political will to 
take on and reform a second, even more powerful industry: the food industry.
   According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 
three-quarters of health care spending now goes to treat "preventable 
chronic diseases." Not all of these diseases are linked to diet - there's 
smoking, for instance - but many, if not most, of them are.
   We're spending $147 billion to treat obesity, $116 billion to treat 
diabetes, and hundreds of billions more to treat cardiovascular disease and 
the many types of cancer that have been linked to the so-called Western 
diet. One recent study estimated that 30 percent of the increase in health 
care spending over the past 20 years could be attributed to the soaring rate 
of obesity, a condition that now accounts for nearly a tenth of all spending 
on health care.
   The American way of eating has become the elephant in the room in the 
debate over health care. The president has made a few notable allusions to 
it, and, by planting her vegetable garden on the South Lawn, Michelle Obama 
has tried to focus our attention on it. Just last month, Mr. Obama talked 
about putting a farmers' market in front of the White House, and building 
new distribution networks to connect local farmers to public schools so that 
student lunches might offer more fresh produce and fewer Tater Tots. He's 
even floated the idea of taxing soda.
   But so far, food system reform has not figured in the national 
conversation about health care reform. And so the government is poised to go 
on encouraging America's fast-food diet with its farm policies even as it 
takes on added responsibilities for covering the medical costs of that diet. 
To put it more bluntly, the government is putting itself in the 
uncomfortable position of subsidizing both the costs of treating Type 2 
diabetes and the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup.
Why the disconnect? Probably because reforming the food system is 
politically even more difficult than reforming the health care system. At 
least in the health care battle, the administration can count some powerful 
corporate interests on its side - like the large segment of the Fortune 500 
that has concluded the current system is unsustainable.
   That is hardly the case when it comes to challenging agribusiness. Cheap 
food is going to be popular as long as the social and environmental costs of 
that food are charged to the future. There's lots of money to be made 
selling fast food and then treating the diseases that fast food causes. One 
of the leading products of the American food industry has become patients 
for the American health care industry.
   The market for prescription drugs and medical devices to manage Type 2 
diabetes, which the Centers for Disease Control estimates will afflict one 
in three Americans born after 2000, is one of the brighter spots in the 
American economy. As things stand, the health care industry finds it more 
profitable to treat chronic diseases than to prevent them. There's more 
money in amputating the limbs of diabetics than in counseling them on diet 
and exercise.
   As for the insurers, you would think preventing chronic diseases would be 
good business, but, at least under the current rules, it's much better 
business simply to keep patients at risk for chronic disease out of your 
pool of customers, whether through lifetime caps on coverage or rules 
against pre-existing conditions or by figuring out ways to toss patients 
overboard when they become ill.
   But these rules may well be about to change - and, when it comes to 
reforming the American diet and food system, that step alone could be a game 
changer. Even under the weaker versions of health care reform now on offer, 
health insurers would be required to take everyone at the same rates, 
provide a standard level of coverage and keep people on their rolls 
regardless of their health. Terms like "pre-existing conditions" and 
"underwriting" would vanish from the health insurance rulebook - and, when 
they do, the relationship between the health insurance industry and the food 
industry will undergo a sea change. ...
"""

So, human peers get stomped on as two big dinosaurs are fighting it out. 
Even three dinosaurs in the sense that the mainstream health industry makes 
big profits from sick people, especially chronically sick people. So, in 
that sense, big insurance, big food, and big medicine are harming people for 
profit.

Related peer-to-peer individual way to be healthier:
   http://www.honestfoodguide.org/
"""
The Honest Food Guide (HFG) is now available for downloading free of charge 
and is:
     * Free from the corruption and influence of various food industries 
(dairy, beef, junk foods, etc.)
     * Designed to benefit you, not Big Business
     * Offers genuine nutritional information, not watered-down information 
designed to boost the sale of milk, beef and grains
"""

Also fasting periodically can help sometimes:
   "Learn how to escape the dietary pleasure trap"
   http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm

Also, a single payer health care proposal for the USA:
   http://www.hr676.org/

--Paul Fernhout
http://www.pdfernhout.net/