Michael Pollan: Healthcare crisis
Read more: HEALTHY EATING, MICHAEL POLLAN
Michael Pollan was the keynote speaker at the Georgia Organics Conference March 21, 2009. The event was held at Agnes Scott College. He addressed the audience after they enjoyed a farmers feast (made from local food) about his thoughts on the "state of the movement." The address is available for viewing in its entirety or in separate parts.
(Meredith Darlington/MNN)
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Transcript:
Michael: Healthcare crisis. Well, since 1960 when I was a boy, spending on healthcare as a percentage of GDP has gone from 5 percent to nearly 18 percent today. We will not be able to insure everybody in this country unless we get a handle on healthcare costs. And when you look at those healthcare costs, as the CDC has done, you discover a rather alarming fact: that of the two trillion dollars we’re spending on healthcare in this country now, that’s 17 percent of our GDP, fully 1.5 trillion, they estimate, is going to treat preventable chronic disease, the great majority of which is linked of course to diet and the way we’re eating. Four of the top ten killers are linked to chronic disease. 70 percent of us will die from diet-related chronic disease.
It is no coincidence that in this period when our healthcare costs were going from 5 percent of our income to 18 percent, our spending on food was plummeting from 16 percent to now under 9 percent. Is there a connection as those two lines crossed? Of course there is. Could we reduce our healthcare spending by spending a little bit more on healthy, quality food? Without a doubt.
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Comments(2)
Posted By James H. - Mon, Jul 27 2009 at 11:15 PM ESTHealthcare Bill....
People are up in arms over HR 3200, and maybe they should be. HR 3200 is a health care bill, and what it does is that it will provide affordable health care for all, and curtail medical costs. It also makes it mandatory for all Americans to have health insurance, but creates a government run (taxpayer funded) alternative to private insurance, prohibits exclusion on basis of pre-existing condition, and then (here's the kicker) places a surtax on all households that earn more than $350,000 to.... More
preventative medicine tastes better
Something I didn't hear from Pollan (at least not in this first part of his address) is the fact that people crippled with healthcare bills are forced to spend less on food. Preventative medicine is so down-played in this culture; by the time you are struggling with cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc. it is very difficult to turn things around. You have to deal with the illnesses themselves, and this often means enormous doctor's bills and prescription costs. By eating well, treating our.... More