Author: Jonathan Wong, Singapore Personal Trainer And Fitness Expert
Real Life Health Costs (Singapore) - Prevention VS Cure
Hospitals are a place where people go to regain health right? Today I went to visit my friend as he checked out of hospital. He just had multiple (I'm talking 12) fractures in his ribs from a mountain biking accident. Putting it in perspective that is 8 weeks of painful breathing, laughing and moving.
But the scary thing was when I went with him to the cashier. His total hospital bill was $10,800 for just 4 days of hospital. This was without any operations or super advanced procedures. I can guess that a majority of patients pay even more than this!
Firstly wow, hospitals make big bucks! Secondly, get good insurance. Thirdly - and this is the point of my article. People will pay ALOT for a health cure but not much for prevention.
How much would people pay for a cure for diabetes? Ask a diabetic who needs daily injections of insulin. I am willing to bet that it would be a very high price in the ten's of thousands of dollars. But how much would people pay for nutritional coaching to prevent adult onset diabetes? $1000 for 10 sessions? Probably not that's "expensive"!
How much for a heart transplant? A few hundred thousand? But a few thousand for preventive measures to a fitness professional is too much.
These are just some examples of the human nature to value cures more than prevention. Especially so in the area of health.
Let's not be short sighted. In the age of medical advances we can "cure" many afflictions. But just because a person is cured does not mean that they have regained a high quality of health and of life. It just means they avoided death.
High quality of health and of life is dependant on MAINTAINING health no looking for stop gap measures to plug the leaks.
We all want health! Let's work on keeping what we have instead of waiting for things to break down and then counting on our insurance policy to help us out.
Financially we may not bear the cost, but physically we sure do.
As a personal trainer in Singapore who has personal training clients in Singapore and around the world, it is very clear that health is worth investing in! So lets invest in prevention.
Written For www.CoachJon.com Singapore Personal Trainer & Fitness Expert
Return From "Real Life Health Costs" to the article page