In my last post, we looked at the importance of exercise in maintaining good health. But why is this so important, and why are we talking about this on an insurance blog?
Well, one aspect of insurance has to do with mortality and life expectancy, both of which are directly affected by one’s general health:
Now, I’m not normally a “chicken little” kind of guy, but this is important information, and it affects my clients, their families, and all ther kind folks who frequent this blog. One of the doctors at the conference warned that “(f)or the first time in history this generation of children may not live as long as their parents because of lifestyle choices.”
This is of a piece with an article brought to my attention by my colleague, Bob Vineyard: “Fatter rear ends are causing many drug injections to miss their mark, requiring longer needles to reach buttock muscle.” Regular, standard sized needles are often too short to reach past the layers of fatty tissues, and allow the needed medications to get into the bloodstream. This is actually a double-whammy, because it can lead to irritation and even infections. My only real quibble with this study is that it was limited to a very small test group: 25 men and an equal number of women. I’d prefer to see a larger sample size [ ed: you just had to say that, didn’t you?].
In any case, the population that may be most in danger is our children. More and more young people are overweight, which has led to an increase in diabetes. From an insurance perspective, this makes it more difficult for folks to find affordable coverage later, if they can find it at all.