by Jan Greene
OK, I need to comment on what we’re starting to hear about the cost to our healthcare system of lifestyle choices — fast food, lack of exercise, etc. I’m seeing more commentaries alleging that Americans are just too lazy about their own health and need to “take responsibility for their own healthcare,” a phrase that really sets my teeth on edge.
Here’s the part that’s usually missing from this analysis, whether it’s coming from the right or left: Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is an issue of economic class. Sure, more middle- and upper-class Americans are heading into their later years and developing chronic ailments such as hypertension and diabetes and many of those cases are likely preventable with some effort. But you know who most of these chronically ill people are? They’re the low-wage workers of America, the single moms who are eking out a living, working a tiring shift at a job not many people want to do, coming home to feed the kids whatever she has time to slap together, and spending what energy she has on the basics of getting through life. She doesn’t have the time, energy or money to pay Oprah’s life coach to tune up her lifestyle. She has time to drive through KFC for the bargain bucket and make sure her kids are getting their homework done. She can’t go to the gym for a spinning class and leave her school-age kids alone at home. Her health is the last thing she has time for, and her stressful lifestyle is nearly guaranteed to result in extra weight and a chronic illness or two.
So lay off all the talk about Americans taking responsibility for themselves. As soon as we give this person some support — like a sick day off, some decent day care, some economic opportunity and equal pay — she’s going to continue to be a “drag on the system.” And an average American.