Unhealthy Life-Styles—How High the Cost?

“SICKNESS is every man’s master,” states a Danish proverb. Anyone who has fallen victim to a chronic illness will readily testify that this “master” can be a cruel one indeed! Yet, you may be surprised to learn that illness is often more like an invited guest than a master. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention attributes 30 percent of the days that patients spend in the hospital to diseases and injuries that could be avoided. The cause? Unhealthy and hazardous life-styles. Consider some examples.

SMOKING. Ira, 53 years old, has emphysema—the result of nearly four decades of smoking. To treat his condition, he needs a steady supply of bottled oxygen, costing about $400 per month. In 1994 a nine-day hospitalization for his condition rang up a tab of $18,000, bringing the total cost of Ira’s health care that year to well over $20,000. Still, Ira feels no urgency to quit smoking. “I just have this unbelievable craving,” he says.

Ira’s case is not unique. Despite the well-known dangers of smoking, people worldwide light up some 15 billion cigarettes daily. In the United States, the annual health-care cost for smoking-related illnesses is estimated to be $50 billion. This means that in 1993, on the average, for every pack of cigarettes purchased, approximately $2.06 was spent on smoking-related medical expenses.

When a child is born, smoking-related medical expenses can begin piling up. To cite just one example, a study in the United States found that babies born to mothers who smoke have twice the risk of developing cleft lips or palates, a condition that may require up to four surgeries by the age of two. The average lifetime cost for medical care and related expenses for this condition is $100,000 per person. Of course, no dollar amount can begin to measure the emotional toll of having a structural birth defect.

Some say that the high health-care cost of smoking is offset by the fact that many smokers do not live long enough to collect Social Security benefits. However, as The New England Journal of Medicine notes, “this conclusion is controversial; moreover, most would agree that premature deaths due to smoking are not a humane means of controlling health care costs.”

ABUSE OF ALCOHOL. Alcohol abuse has been linked to a number of health problems, including cirrhosis of the liver, heart disease, gastritis, ulcers, and pancreatitis. It can also make one more susceptible to infectious diseases such as pneumonia. In the United States, each year “$10 billion is used to treat people who can’t handle their liquor,” according to Dr. Stanton Peele.

Alcohol often affects the fetus in the womb. Each year tens of thousands of children in the United States alone are born with defects because their mothers drank when pregnant. Some of these infants are diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), and often these suffer from physical and mental impairments. The average lifetime medical cost for each FAS child has been estimated at $1.4 million.

Since alcohol decreases impulse control, excessive drinking often plays a role in outbursts of violence, which can result in injuries that require medical attention. There is also the insurmountable harm caused by those who operate vehicles while intoxicated. Consider the effects on Lindsey, an eight-year-old girl who had to be pried loose from the backseat of her mother’s car after a drunk driver collided with them. Lindsey spent seven weeks in a hospital and needed a number of operations. Her medical expenses exceeded $300,000. She was fortunate to have survived at all.

DRUG ABUSE. One researcher estimates the annual cost of drug abuse in America to be $67 billion. Joseph A. Califano, Jr., president of the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at New York’s Columbia University, points out another costly aspect of the problem: “Crack babies, a rarity a decade ago, crowd $2,000-a-day neonatal wards. . . . It can cost $1 million to bring each survivor to adulthood.” In addition, notes Califano, “pregnant mothers’ failure to seek prenatal care and stop abusing drugs accounts for much of the almost $3 billion that Medicaid spent in 1994 on inpatient hospital care related to drug use.”

The tragedy of the situation is heightened when we consider the incalculable human cost of this vice. Marital strife, neglected children, and depleted financial resources are among the common problems affecting families torn by drug abuse.

PROMISCUITY. More than 12 million people in the United States contract sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) each year, giving the United States the highest STD rate of any developed country. David Celentano, of Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, calls this “a national embarrassment.” The direct cost of these diseases, not including AIDS, is about $10 billion annually. Teenagers are at special risk. And no wonder! According to one report, by the 12th grade, some 70 percent of them have had sexual intercourse and close to 40 percent of them have had at least four partners.

AIDS is a health-care catastrophe in itself. In early 1996 the most effective therapy available—protease inhibitors combined with standard older drugs—cost between $12,000 and $18,000 a year per person. But this is just a fraction of the hidden cost of AIDS, which includes the lost productivity of the victim and those who take time off from work or school to care for him. It is estimated that by the year 2000, HIV and AIDS will have drained between $356 billion and $514 billion worldwide—the equivalent of wiping out the entire economy of either Australia or India.

VIOLENCE. When she was U.S. surgeon general, Joycelyn Elders reported that the medical cost of violence was $13.5 billion in 1992. U.S. President Bill Clinton observed: “One of the reasons American health care is so expensive is that our hospitals and our emergency rooms are full of people who are cut up and shot.” With good reason The Journal of the American Medical Association calls violence in the United States “a public health emergency.” The report continues: “Although violence is not a disease in the ‘classic’ sense, its impact on personal and public health is as profound as that of many physiologic ills—perhaps more so.”

A report by 40 hospitals in Colorado says that the average cost for each victim of violence during the first nine months of 1993 was $9,600. More than half of those hospitalized were uninsured, and many of these were unable or unwilling to pay for their expenses. Such situations lead to higher taxes, higher insurance premiums, and higher hospital bills. The Colorado Hospital Association reports: “We all pay.”

Change of Life-Style

From a human standpoint, the prospect of reversing the trend in unhealthy life-styles is bleak. “America is not the Garden of Eden and we will never rid ourselves of all substance abuse,” says a report by Columbia University. “But to the extent we curb such abuse, we will reap a rich harvest of healthier babies, less violence and crime, lower taxes, reduced health care costs, higher profits, better-educated students and fewer AIDS cases.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses have found the Bible to be the greatest help in accomplishing that goal. The Bible is no ordinary book. It is inspired by man’s Creator, Jehovah God. (2 Timothy 3:16, 17) He is “the One teaching you to benefit yourself, the One causing you to tread in the way in which you should walk.” (Isaiah 48:17) The principles set out in the Bible are healthful, and those who walk in its counsel reap great benefits.

For example, Esther was once a heavy smoker.a After she began studying the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses, her Bible teacher invited her to spend a day touring the world headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses, in Brooklyn, New York. At first, Esther was hesitant. Knowing that Jehovah’s Witnesses do not smoke, she wondered how she could be with them for a whole day. So Esther put one cigarette in her purse, reasoning that if she felt the urge to smoke it, she would simply sneak into a rest room. Just as she had planned, after one of the tours Esther went into a ladies’ room and got out her cigarette. But then she noticed something. The room was spotlessly clean, and the air was fresh. “I just couldn’t dirty up the place by smoking that cigarette,” Esther recalls, “so I flushed it down the toilet. And that was the last cigarette I ever touched!”

Worldwide, millions like Esther are learning to live in harmony with Bible principles. They benefit themselves, and they become greater assets to the communities in which they live. Most important, they bring honor to their Creator, Jehovah God.—Compare Proverbs 27:11.

Although man’s best efforts cannot reproduce a “Garden of Eden,” the Bible says that God will do so. Second Peter 3:13 states: “There are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his [God’s] promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell.” (Compare Isaiah 51:3.) In that new earth, health care will no longer be a concern, for mankind will enjoy life with perfect health—the way God purposed it from the beginning. (Isaiah 33:24) Would you like to learn more about God’s promises? Jehovah’s Witnesses would be happy to help you.

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© 1985 P. F. Bentley/Black Star