Twenty-five percent of Americans do not take their medication as prescribed (upwards of 75% for psychotic disorders), young, healthy (for now) people do not buy health insurance, 75% of black babies are born to unwed mothers, over thirty percent of Americans are clinically obese (the highest of any developed nation), depending on whose data you accept between 45 and 52 million Americans smoke, more than 22 million Americans age 12 and older – nearly 9% of the U.S. population – use illegal drugs, according to the government’s 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health and only 31% of Americans do enough regular leisure-time physical activity; about 40% do no regular leisure-time physical activity, government statistics show, the U.S. has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world costing $9 billion a year in welfare and public health expenditures.
Hey, I’m a conservative kind of guy, I favor personal responsibility and accountability, including for the consequences of ones actions. However, if you want to know why making health care “affordable” is such a challenge, keep all the above in mind.
And guess what, these personal choices by fellow Americans cost you money, a great deal of money in both health insurance premiums and in taxes. There really is a price for freedom (to act irresponsibly).
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