The irresponsibility of American people will cost the United States businesses more than they can afford. Simply the people who refuse to make changes in overeating, smoking, drinking booze and refusing the exercise will create such a financial burden that businesses  and individuals will find health care unaffordable.

At some point in the future, the current carelessness will drive health care costs to the brink of disaster. Ancient Israel fell because people refused to follow God's commands, and this nation may well follow in its tracks.

To sustain the proposed National Health Care Plan will inevitably require more taxes, maybe another 10 percent. Do you think that is free? -- You better think again. We should now turn to current medical costs for American businesses.

"Obesity costs U.S. companies more than $13 billion annually in medical fees and lost productivity and is associated with 39 million lost workdays, according to the National Business Group on Health," according to Dr. Ronald S. Leopold in the article Reigning in the cost of obesity. "The costs will likely skyrocket over the next few years, since obesity is rapidly catching up to smoking as the Number 1 preventable cause of death in this country....While employees must take responsibility for addressing and combating their own obesity problems and lifestyle choices, it is in the best interest of employers to contribute to the solution as well. Employers have an important role to play in ensuring a healthy work environment and mitigating the financial burden to the workplace resulting from the rise in obesity."

The cost of short term disability payments resulted when women had intestinal surgery for weight loss. Women had been cited as more likely to seek medical assistance then men for the weight problem. "The average absence for a worker who files an obesity-related STD (short term disability) claim is 45 days, a substantial length of time for an employee to be out of the office. Employee absences resulting from obesity adversely affects businesses due to rising healthcare costs, lost productivity, the increased burden on other workers, and the cost of training a replacement employee or paying overtime to other employees to compensate for lost work hours," Leopold stated.

Common diseases associated with obesity had been cited as heart conditions, obesity related diabetes, arthritis and joint problems. Further, the cost to employers in this 2004 article had been estimated at $220 billion annually. Consequently, Leopold suggested having programs like weight watchers, subsidized health club memberships, work with health vendors to target the obese population, and implement healthy eating habits by bringing fruit and vegetables to the work place instead of donuts, pizza and other high calorie foods.

Those 10 percent of employees on short term disability also consumed 50 percent of the employer's healthcare dollars. In another study, obesity related medical costs had been estimated at a high cost outside the business environment too.

"According to a study of national costs attributed to both overweight (BMI 25–29.9) and obesity (BMI greater than 30), medical expenses accounted for 9.1 percent of total U.S. medical expenditures in 1998 and may have reached as high as $78.5 billion ($92.6 billion in 2002 dollars) (Finkelstein, Fiebelkorn, and Wang, 2003)," according to the article Obesity and Overweight. "Approximately half of these costs were paid by Medicaid and Medicare. The primary data sets used to develop the spending estimates for this study included the 1998 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the 1996 and 1997 National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS)."

Even with surgery, a cost to employers, many patients do not achieve success in weight loss. "There is significant patient-to-patient variability, however, in the long-term results of bariatric surgery. One large study, for example, found that 9 percent of gastric bypass patients and 25 percent of adjustable gastric banding patients had failed to maintain at least a 5 percent reduction in initial weight 10 years postoperatively. The role of psychological and/or dietary factors in these suboptimal outcomes is not well understood," according to the Clinical Plastic Surgeon Journal. In the article Psychiatric Considerations of Massive Weigh Loss Patient written by David B. Sarwer Phd., and associates.

Continued

"Obesity is associated with five out of ten leading causes of death and disability such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension and stroke. An estimated 300,000 people die each year of illnesses related to obesity, more than the number killed by pneumonia, motor vehicle accidents and airlines crashes combined. Since 1991, the percentage of obese Americans has increased by 74 percent. More than 21 million U.S. men and over 23 million women are obese," according to the article The prevalence and factors associated with obesity amount adult women in Selangor, Malaysia. This article appeared in the Asian Pacific Family Medicine journal.

In consideration of these cost and related health issues, one might conclude the obesity is one of the many diseases requiring a public educations program to curb the rise in costs. Employers incur costs, consumers incur costs and we all must pay the price of increased insurance premiums, and as always demand drives up costs. Then we could look at the issue from a religious standpoint in that the Bible teaches that the body is the temple of the Lord, that man was made in God's image and we should not do anything that should cause the body harm.

"The Bible condemns overindulgence in many things, including food. Proverbs 23:20-21 says: Don't associate with those who drink too much wine, or with those who gorge themselves on meat. For the drunkard and the glutton will become poor, and grogginess will clothe them in rags. Here, as in other verses, gluttony is placed in the same category as other sinful behavior. Yet, while the church denounces the use of alcohol, we don't often speak up about the sin of overeating even though the lack of self-control is usually the root of both problems," according to the article Obesity in the Body of Christ.

This author Wendy Ashley stated that obesity rates vary between the Catholics and the Protestants with the Baptists the highest at 27 percent. Ashley cited Scripture in that the body represented God's Temple and that all should be good stewards of our body, and that Christians should demonstrate the fruits of the spirit as stated in Galatians, including self-control.

"When we are able to control our appetites, we are usually better able to exercise self-control in other areas like anger, lust, and gossip. Walking in the spirit means using food as God intended — to provide energy for our bodies — and enjoying food in appropriate quantities. This places the proper emphasis on food and allows us to also place proper emphasis on spiritual matters," Ashley wrote.

However, many Christians readily quote Scripture that no one has a right to judge or point fingers. Rather, few want to even discuss health issues as something God intended for men and women to address. As many ministers have been confronted by this issue, they often respond with a verse from the Bible. However, anyone knows anyone can quote Scripture. God commands action. God commanded Moses, he commanded Noah and Jonah. All those commandments required personal action. For example, no boat would have been built if Noah only prayed and cited Scripture. He had to actually do something physical.

"What can the church do? First, ministers need to look at themselves and determine if the change needs to start with them. Next, they must speak up and encourage their church members to have discipline in all areas of their lives. Because the Bible addresses eating, indulgence, self control, self discipline, gluttony, and other related sins, we need to be able to address this topic in our churches without fear of offense. Congregations are blessed when their pastors encourages them to make changes in their lifestyles that will ultimately bring glory to God," Ashley wrote.

Yet, day in and day out Christians have nothing to say about stewardship, they have nothing to say about obesity, they have nothing to say about poor management of money. They often say the focus on health is simply not a spiritual pursuit.

Of course we all have freedom of choice in the United States. According to Psychologist Barry Schwartz when we have too many choices that creates a paralysis. As an example, the doctor offers two choices: you can inject insulin as a diabetic or take pills. Instead, of providing patients what is best for them doctors would rather just provide choices, at least that is Schwartz theory. What we value has to do with what people compare things too. For example, an obese man compares the tasty food to living a healthy lifestyle. He might choose the excess food choice, but then because of excessive choices, he might regret not choosing the healthy path. Consequently, multiple choices can lead to less satisfaction even when they might be good results. So the excess choices might go like this. I can attend the ABC Weight Loss support group, who talks about Z or I could attend the CGH Weight Loss support group, and even though better, the choices made the man feel worse because, just maybe, the other option might have been better.

"The secret to happiness is low expectations," Schwartz said, as he displayed a cartoon of a bride who was extremely obese.

Essentially, he stated that excess choices lead to less satisfaction, and increases mental depression opportunities. In the case of diabetics, television advertisements and Internet advertising promotes cures for diabetes by having intestinal surgeries, new drugs and magic potions of some natural herb. Because of this excess, the obese who needs to improve his or her health, may choose drugs over losing weight.

People could actually quit eating so much and improve their health, but perhaps doctors provide too many choices when they should be giving the best advice. That might just be possible in some cases. "So much about medicine is mopping up the floor without turning off the faucet," said Dr. Dean Ornish is a clinical professor at UCSF and founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute. He's a leading expert on fighting illness -- particularly heart disease with diet. "Insurance will cover  heart bypass surgery, but will not pay for diet and lifestyle changes."

Fear of death does not work. As an example, he showed the most successful anti-smoking campaign that portrayed a man with a limp cigarette sticking out of his mouth to indicate sexual dysfunction. Further, he noted that smoking, high fat diet and depression can all lead to poor health. Within 2 hours of a high fat diet, the blood flow decreased, and the high fat, excess food, smoking and drinking all can lead to sexual dysfunction. On the other hand, low fat diet increased blood flow and energy.

"You feel so much better so quickly and the benefit are enormous....You want to lose weight in a way that helps you."

He spoke against the Atkins Diet. The optimal diet is high fiber, low carbohydrates and low fat. The fiber slows absorption, which lowers the demand of insulin. When high carbohydrate diets drive up blood sugar, the insulin response turns the calories into excess body weight. In his review, he noted that the lower carbohydrate diet, low red meat diet and high fiber diet shrank tumors in prostrate cancer patients. He further concluded that the effect would be beneficial for colon and breast cancer patients, also.

As he continued on his talk, Ornish stated that intimacy also can provide healing. That intimacy can be sexual and it also can be in the form of a support group. When intimacy took place, the health benefits had been cited as enormous, and decreased recurrence of cancer patients.

He then used the terms Wellness and Illness as an example. The first two letters of Wellness mean "WE" and the first letter of Illness represented "I."  From that he concluded that togetherness brought healing, adding to the concept of support groups as beneficial.