Archives for November 2012

Obamacare and P90X have been two of the most highly talked about topics in the health care related fields for the past couple of years. Figured a last minute comparison before the election tomorrow is better than no comparison. Being a four time P90X graduate I pretty much know everything about it. Obamacare is over 300k words long so needless to say – I didn’t read it – but have instead gone over the major points being discussed.

The main topics with Obamacare is not allowing your insurance company to cancel your policy due to pre-existing conditions, costs, access to health care, a right to health care, and taxes. P90X is about transforming your health and fitness in 90 days through a series of 12 different workouts and a defined meal plan. The reason behind both of these being such a hot topic is politics and marketing. Not to mention that 38% of the country is obese. Not fat. Obese. Estimates are that 50% of the U.S will be obese by 2030. We can all agree that there is a – no pun intended – huge health crisis going on in the U.S.

What Are We Talking About?

This is the key question we need to ask ourselves when deciding which one of these is addressing the obesity epidemic. Going through the article above we need to look at only a couple of key points that I bolded below.

Extra weight increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, many types of cancer, sleep apnea and other chronic illnesses.

At this trajectory, “more people will have preventable diseases that will dramatically affect the quality of their lives, from type 2 diabetes to debilitating arthritis to heart disease,” says Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the Trust for America’s Health, a non-profit group that commissioned the analysis along with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “The health care costs of obesity-related diseases would skyrocket by billions of dollars a year.”

If states could reduce their residents’ body mass index, a number that takes into account height and weight, by as little as 5%, it could help millions of people avoid those diseases and save billions in health care dollars, Levi says. For someone who is 200 pounds, that would mean dropping about 10 pounds, he says.

“We have a choice between two futures — one where obesity continues to rise at an unacceptable level, and another where we change the course. We know how to make a difference so fewer people have to suffer from obesity-related diseases. “

AND

Let’s get into the comparisons.

Pre-Existing Conditions

P90X – One guy in the Plyometrics workout ( an hour of jumping) has a prosthetic leg. Cammie Lusk dropped over 70 pounds doing a modified version of P90X all while dealing with Multiple Sclerosis. Richard Neal was 426 pounds when he started P90X over 2 years ago and has lost 200 pounds following P90X. On top of that he won $100k by submitting his results to Beachbody. He is now an inspiration to his community.

Obamacare – Starting in 2014 there will be no such thing as a pre-existing condition with your health insurance provider. However, your health insurance provider does not provide you with a plan to drop the weight or get healthier. They only cover some/all of the costs of you visiting a Dr who is going to say you need a plan.

Winner – P90X – Gives people a plan to eliminate one if not many pre-existing conditions.

Costs

P90X – For $120 you get a program that can be used for the rest of your life.

Obamacare – There is no price tag yet. We do know that if you don’t buy health insurance you will be assessed a 1% of your income fee from the IRS for every year you don’t purchase.

Winner – P90X. After using my original dvds through 4 rounds and mixing it in with hybrid workouts my cost per use on each dvd is $.03. Obamacare deals with buying insurance that you have to pay for regardless if you use it or not. I’ll use my 4 Drs. visits over the past 4 years as an example. Three visits for sports related injuries and one for some 24 hour bug I picked up. I have spent almost $4500 on my self-employed catastrophic (in case I go off a cliff snowboarding) health insurance plan including out of pocket costs. That means each visit costs me $1125. Let’s say Obamacare is somehow able to stop the last 20 years of increase in costs at their current rate. If I continue to use P90X my cost per dvd will go down and the benefits I receive from them (healthier, more fit, keep weight off, less injury prone) will go up. In turn I will stay on pace with using my insurance less which means that the cost for every visit will go up.

Access To…

P90X – You can buy P90X at the Beachbody Store for $120 at anytime of the day.

Obamacare – Health insurance companies don’t have to take you on as a customer.

Winner – P90X.

Right To…

P90X – You have the right to pursue obtaining P90X.

Obamacare – Your forced to buy health insurance in 2014.

Winner – P90X. Maybe you’re not ready for P90X right now but we’re not gonna make you buy it.

Taxes

P90X – You might pay a one time state sales tax (usually $9) when buying a copy of P90X.

Obamacare – If you don’t buy health insurance and make more than $9500 a year your penalty will start at $695. This does not include all of the other taxes that were enacted with passing this bill.

Winner – P90X. Do I even need to do the math?

Final Tally

P90X – 5 Obamacare – 0

P90X wins in a landslide. What kind of cracks me up is Tony Horton donated $4300 to Barack Obama back in 2008. I doubt that Tony knew he would provide more “Hope” and “Change” for his fellow Americans than Obama has done.

Again – What Are We Talking About Here?

Obamacare does nothing to help solve the obesity crisis going on in the United States. Many say Obamacare is socialism. It’s not. Its corporatism. It forces people to buy something from a private corporation that they may not otherwise buy. The real damage from this bill is what kind of mindset will set in. I feel that what this bill really does is allow people to make excuses for their health because now they can see a Dr. and ask them for pills to take care of the situation. Once people reach obesity it’s nearly impossible to bring them back. They have it made up in their mind that this is who they are and that’s just how its gonna be. So regardless of what this bill intends to do it does nothing to take care of the real problem.

Your A Jerk

I know there are people who will read this and say my facts are way off or that I know nothing. If you feel the need to blast me in the comment section then please do. I’ve been getting *blasted* by people on Facebook for 4 years now for speaking against it and your comment will not be anything new. I’m fairly well read about this and other Government related topics but I’m done posting link after link as to why this bill is bad. Found out you won’t read it anyways. Sad, but true. I pretty much have simplified this down to two questions.

1. What Is The Role Of Government?

If you feel that Government should be involved in health care then you also have to be in favor of it being involved in every other service/product. I’m talking pizza, auto repair shops, bars, movie theaters, coffee shops, clothing stores, and the million other places we go to buy a product or service. We do pretty well there without having the Government involved in the outcome of those trillion or so transactions a year. Why should healthcare be any different? I think Dr. Barbara Bellar sums it up quite well in one sentence. Now if we could only get her to take down that Romney sign and instead put one up of that adorable old man in the picture to the right.

2. Is There Poop In The Ice Cream?

Picture a bowl of ice cream in front of you. Your ready to dig in until you see somebody approaching your table with something on a spoon. They proceed to dump its contents onto your ice cream. You watch it fall and upon it landing you recognize it as the only thing it can be. Its poop. You’re pissed off. However, your mind starts going through a couple of scenarios. The poop only covered 10% of the ice cream. Do you go to work on the 90% and try to eat 70% of it before the poop starts melting in with the good ice cream and enjoy some of it? Or do you realize there’s poop in your ice cream and now its all bad? If our Politicians and more importantly – you and I – started looking at bills with the “Poop In The Ice Cream” analogy we would vote no on pretty much everything. I’ll admit that there are a couple good things with Obamacare but it should have been dead in the water once it got into forcing people to buy something.

I understand that there are many serious illnesses out there and that this bill is more or less designed for them. The powers that be have done a great job of bashing it into our heads that if you’re not for a bill like this then you’re not compassionate for others. It’s quite the opposite. I don’t feel that I should have a vote as to how you want to live your life and neither should you on mine. Until that time comes. I’ll be on the front lines tackling the obesity epidemic one person at a time with P90X. How about you?