Paul Ryan, Medicare, and Health
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Since I arrived in the US a few years ago, I noticed that in spite of a part of the population working hard to stay fit, the average American was several pounds too heavy. It was easy to notice also that the quality of the food and eating habits were clearly related to the problem.
This is the “super size me” country, were people drink too much soda, eat huge amounts of popcorn when they go to the movies (and teach their kids to do the same), and so on. Unfortunately from this country the same bad eating habits are spreading around the world, so that currently fast food and junk food are becoming almost a plague, starting with children.
In these days of heavy political campaigning I could’t avoid noticing an article about Paul Ryan and the P90X fitness program. In particular I noticed this comment from Washington Post political reporter Dana Milbank:
It can only do us good as a nation to have as a role model such a fine physical specimen in high office. Hopefully, Ryan will inspire more Americans to get healthy. That’s important, because if Ryan succeeds in ending Medicare, they won’t be able to afford getting sick.
Milbank found a smart way to express her criticism of Paul Ryan’s proposal. I will not enter into the details of the program, I will just say that I do not think he is proposing to end it completely.
However, what I thought when reading that comment, is that probably one of the best ways to really solve the problems related to overspending in Medicare is to have a population that eats better and exercises more. For sure there are people whose problems have nothing to do with that, but in many cases, better prevention could really help solve the problem, perhaps more than never ending debates and political fights.