What is designed to save you, might just ‘kill you’. At least financially it may seem to do that. While some insurance providers are removing some of their coverage options from the market, other providers removing themselves completely from selected markets – and they can do that unscathed and without penalty. What they leave behind, are dependents who now face premium increases that significantly cut into the monthly household budget. The problem, as you know, if you don’t have coverage, the IRS will collect your penalty at the time of filing your tax return. Let’s look at your options:
The decision of insurance providers to remove, or significantly increase premiums, will have far-reaching implications.
Blue Cross Blue Shield says the change will affect about “103,000 Minnesotans [who] have purchased Blue Cross coverage on their own, through an agent or broker, or on MNsure,” the state’s insurance exchange.
“We understand and regret the difficulty we know this causes for some of our members,” the insurer wrote. “We will be notifying all of our members individually and work with them to assess and transition to alternative coverage options in 2017.” (npr.org)
Also, this post is not singling out the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) as the lone culprit; health insurance costs have steadily risen even before the ACA, except now 
the increases have grown faster that workers wages can, and will be, adjusted for it.
Where does that leave you, the forced-to-pay American? Through social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) we’ve seen individuals showing their Blue Cross – Blue Shield, Anthem, Aetna, HealthPartners mail, which informed them of premium increases anywhere between $253 per month, to a family who’s premiums will increase from $792 per month to $1912 per month – and that’s before the addition of outrageously high deductibles! Those numbers were shown under the respective plans of their providers and did not elude whether the recipients of these letters generate an income that allows them to show on MNSURE.gov. Many individuals who talked about their healthcare plan availability and associated costs said, “I’ll have to pay the fine, I can’t afford that”. Others said, “Local businesses will eat that cost of increase since we have to cut back on expenses.”
The problem is simple; no one can, or will, escape the demands of the federal government, state government, for-profit insurance ‘providers’ and the actual healthcare providers in form of hospitals, clinics, specialist offices, etc. You either pay up front or you pay in arrears, or you rack up the bills and become a personal bankruptcy statistic. Either way, they’ll get their money – except, you do have a nominal choice. Set yourself up for success that allows you to drop your plans to encompass catastrophic coverage only, while you’re diligently keeping yourself in a position where preventable disease will indeed be prevented. In that, you take back at least some of the control of your healthcare and the associated cost. Of course, there are extenuating circumstances such as pre-existing conditions, genetic conditions, and other health concerns, which do not allow you to fully take back control, but even there, you can put your best foot forward.
How to ‘stay’ alive?
The ‘plan’ we offer for your consideration is simple. Similar to a doctor who should be treating the cause, not just address the symptoms; you HAVE to reel it back to the very basics of what will be keeping you healthy, in shape and only at the doctor’s office when you have absolutely no other choice. In short, you have to address the causes, not work on your symptoms. The causes, the very root of your health, is indeed in your hands.
The very root is also an oath that every doctor swears, the Hippocratic oath. It was also Hippocrates (431 B.C.) who said, “Let food be thy medicine”. Suffice to assume, if the ancient Greek had had as many sedentary ‘couch potatoes’ as we currently have in our society, dependent on Amlodipine and Lisinopril (blood pressure) or Metformin (Type 2 Diabetes), a host of cholesterol lowering medications, C-Pap machines to fight their weight induced sleep apnea, Hippocrates would likely have amended his phrase to “Let food and physical fitness be thy medicine”.
Where does it start?
It starts with YOU. You are the most important person in the room. The reason for that is simple: If YOU fall apart, you’re not helping anyone. This is the same rule of significance why every airline tells you to place the oxygen mask on yourself before you help others. Because, if you don’t, you will need help. Help costs money – a lot more money than taking control of your health destination.
Thus, you are in charge. You have choices. One of these choices is to eat foods that keep you healthy, fuel your ‘machine’ to work on peak performance (read our Blood Sugar Stabilization post) and then YOU get to the gym, working on your physical performance markers.
Yes, good food costs money. So does an effective gym membership. No, none of the “Planet Fitness” gyms where as soon as you huff, you’re being shown the door, and for good measure, you’re being given pizza on your way out. These gyms are explicitly designed to encourage your emotional eating, keeping you in an unhealthy zone and lure you with a ‘non-judgmental’ environment.
The newsflash to this is: These gyms might not judge you to your face, although they will behind closed doors – they only want your money. The insurance provider, though, they DEFINITELY judge you on based on your health markers, which is just another reason why your premiums sky-rocket. The actuaries, who determine risk groups, throw you into a statistical bucket. You’ve just lost your individuality by being less than your best self. You’re now a ‘risk group’. Do you have a choice? Not if you leave the judgment up to them. Yes, if you take control of where you’re headed with your health, nutrition, and fitness.
Driving home the point here is another simple break down
Many Americans will have to cut back on their ‘fun spending’. Yes, you may need to cook more at home and invite friends over. This is NOT a bad thing. Cook something healthy – make it a healthy cook-off competition if that brings some fun to the idea of not going out. Yes, fast food joints and unhealthy chain restaurants may feel the pinch. Yes, there are exceptions, if you know of a restaurant that features healthy, farm-to-table cuisine, designed to keep your blood sugar stabilized, and not sky-rocketing into unhealthy levels. The problem is that these restaurants are traditionally more expensive. Thus, your spending may need some self-control, which brings you back to cooking at home, inviting friends over and, if you’re totally up for an inappropriate good time, have them bring “Cards Against Humanity” with them. This is definitely something you don’t want to play in public spaces. It’s a win-win situation.
If you’re lacking ideas of what to cook, check out our “Food Resources” page for inspiration. Still not enough? Email us (staff@theathletelab.com), and ask us when we have the next nutrition seminar. Still not enough? Join us (Free Intro) and we’ll guide you all the way!
Beyond Food
Beyond food, though, you have to get physically active again. Certainly, you can yoga your way to bendiness, you can also run your way to skinny-fatness (that’s being skinny, but still not having any muscle strength), or you can actually pick up some weights, get some ‘kick-arse’ cardio in the process, load up on strength, cheer on your fellow athletes as they move weights they never thought they would, and get fist-pumps and high-fives when you smash your own personal bests. We call that ‘effective community fitness’. You can find that in many ‘boutique gyms’ that feature kettlebells, barbells, and other non-automated equipment.
What is a ‘boutique gym’? It’s not a chain gym. It’s not a gym where you spend $50 per month, and they hope that you won’t come back, because the more you show up, the sooner their machines need to be serviced. It’s also not a gym where you’re left to your own vices. A ‘boutique gym’ is a gym that you recognize immediately: If their rowers, bicycles, and other machinery is not plugged into the wall and doesn’t feature TV screens, but is purely powered by YOU, then you know you’re in an actual gym. If there are dumbbells, neatly arranged kettlebells, barbells and a well-maintained rig, you know you’re in an actual gym. If there’s staff who welcomes you at the front desk, just for you to see them again when they are actually coaching you, then you know you’re at an actual (boutique) gym. It’s these gyms that ONLY survive if they do their job right. And a ‘right job’ is when your needs are addressed, your health strengthened and your physical fitness improved.
In short, what you want is the following
No fluff. No placebo. No low cost, “please don’t show up”, big box anonymity, but places where there are people who truly care about your progress, and coaches who talk to you about your goals and ambitions and then 
have the tools to get you there. You want “Fitness Communities” of like-minded who are genuinely interested in you being there, and they’ll call you out if you’re slacking off. Accountability toward one another goes a darn long way when you want to actually get better. This is not about who grunts the loudest, or who has the biggest muscles for the next stage competition. This is all about staying as healthy and functionally fit, for as long as you humanly can – all the while, not having to rely on your insurance provider, or anyone else to carry the groceries inside for you. This is also not about people who think they have to be fit to start any program. Fitness comes in so many individualized variations and every workout can be modified to fit your needs. A good coach knows that, addresses that and lays it out for you to progress – unlike the big box gyms.
Why are we making an emotional appeal to you?
To be perfectly honest, because ‘enough is enough’. The way we, as human beings, are dropping the ball, and the way for-profit corporations take advantage of our lethargic address toward our own health, has to change. It must change. Presently, we have two choices; to give in and pay more, because they simply can make us do that – or- take charge of our own health destiny and pay them less.
Because it’s way past time that you invest in yourself, instead of investing in healthcare coverage that is only made available to you when the providers make hefty profits from you. It’s way past time that you take back control and decide upon your own health destiny.
It’s also way past time that we lay off the body-shaming culture, celebrating our own discomfort. It is definitely time for a close and hard look into the mirror, facing the facts and plotting our best options – and they are surprisingly simple:
“Let food and physical exercise be thy medicine”
(…and pay those health insurance vultures the least amount you can responsibly accept.)
