Florida Health Insurance And Exercise Programs Help You Save On Healthcare
Officials need to balance strategies to expand healthcare to more people in Florida with the need to rein in what individuals and governments spend on Florida health insurance and healthcare.
One tactic addresses both problems. Programs that promote 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 billed extra for pre-existing health conditions. Until 2014, Florida health insurance providers can continue to refuse coverage for those with existing medical care needs for conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other conditions that need expensive health care.
While people are being denied access to affordable health care coverage , they are forced to rely 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 decrease 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 utilize physical fitness not just to enhance the health of the state’s population, but also to help 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 important 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 lower 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 shown to be cost effective in averting several life-threatening conditions that add up to costly medical interventions, which are not always effective. Not only can exercise help you spend less for FL 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 alive.
This idea is already being endorsed by some insurers, 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 medical care costs during that second year than people who only used health clubs less often than weekly.
Does Your FL Health Insurance Help You Exercise?
If you can’t find an inexpensive 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 lower several health risks and the benefits are greatest for those who are obese or overweight. When researchers in New York City looked at the outcomes 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 create your own exercise plan, any new health insurance plan will help you safeguard your health in a new way. In Florida, health insurance plans purchased 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.