Why it costs more to be unhealthy

I was listening to the radio the other day (AM talkback radio because I am a super cool, hip and trendy 26 year old) and someone, when talking about obesity, rang through and said "But it's cheaper for me to get drive through McDonalds/KFC because they have lunch deals where I can get a hamburger, chips, a drink and a soft serve for $4.95!. I sighed - knowing that overconsumption of energy rich nutrient poor foods (and almost total lack of exercise) is what is leading to this country, and many other countries, struggle with weight.

The next caller, Curtis Stone I expect, rang up and said "Nah mate, not if you've got a family of five to feed, 5 times $5 is $25 and I could go to the supermarket and make some really delicious and healthier food for that much" And this caller is right. For $25, you could get about 2kg of lean beef mince and all the ingredients for an awesome batch of spaghetti - you might even get leftovers! And ultimately, it will taste a hellava lot better than fast food!

Curtis Stone, long time listener, first time caller.

Over the weekend, The Age published this article on the Obesity epidemic, feel free to go read it and come back to. I'll wait. For those that can't be bothered, here are the key points.

The story beings with a woman who is obese, and her story of 35 kilogram weight loss, and then looks at one of Victoria's health providers, Bendigo Health, and the building of their new hospital, including the Bariatric rooms.

"It will house 27 custom-designed "bariatric" rooms, exclusively to be used by obese patients. Every ward will house one or two such rooms...Four square metres larger than standard, each $266,000 bariatric room in the new hospital will be equipped with a bigger, reinforced bed, a larger toilet, shower, wheelchair and trolley, and will be fitted with an electronically operated ceiling track hoist capable of moving patients weighing up to 300 kilograms.Equipment costs alone are $30,000 - more than three times that of a standard room."

The article goes on to say that the addition of these bariatric rooms has added $1.67 Million to building costs - something I heard previously from the CEO of Bendigo Health, John Mulder, at the Loddon Mallee Health Promotion Conference I attended last year. Mr Mulder explained that for whatever reason (sorry, can't remember), the Bariatric rooms were not on the first floor, and for this reason, the floor underneath these rooms had to be given additional reinforcement because of the weight they needed to support. 

This is insane.

Mr Mulder went on to explain that this is why Bendigo Health are looking to put more money and efforts towards preventative health - because the money spent there is significantly less than money required to build rooms which cost more than 3 times the cost of a regular room, and don't require extra reinforcement which costs so much more. 

This is something our governments, local state and federal need to be looking at as well. It costs a lot less to put efforts into preventative health than sending the money to the end of the spectrum where people are already overweight. The issue with this is simple. 

The average term of a state government, 4 years and federal, 3 years, is simply not enough time to invest money in preventative health and see a return on those investments. Preventative health takes years to see the results, like lower levels of certain cancers, obesity, heart disease etc. This is contrasted with results you can see in a 3/4 year term - more beds in hospitals, more police on the streets, and more roads. It boils down to KPI's. In my retail job, I can't say, look, I didn't make any sales this week, but I talked to a lot of people who are going to come in next week and buy some stuff. You know who will get my shifts next week? The person who had sales this week. Alexander is right, it really is simple. 

Alexander gets it. 

So what do we do about it? We keep talking about how expensive it is to look after people who are obese, you approach it from this angle and it becomes more savory to those concerned with dollars and cents. Invest money now in prevention and save money when it comes time for their treatment. We need to increase education around food choices and the importance of physical activity. And on a personal note... people need to stop believing that a 'cure' or a 'magic pill' or a 'tea' or a 'juice cleanse' is going to shed their weight while they continue to sit on their collective arses and eatting shitty food the rest of the time.

A meat pie pizza. Well done Australia.