More on health care.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)

I read Jeff Hankins' Publisher's Note ("Health Care Reform Redux," May 4), and I agree with most of what he said. However, we should not overlook the concept of personal responsibility for our own well-being. It is the proverbial elephant in the room.

Much of the emphasis of the government and those in a position of influence is placed on how we shuffle the paper instead of the causes of the huge increases in health care costs.

The Centers for Disease Control Web site offers a slideshow on the alarming increase in the rate of obesity in this country since 1987. Arkansas Surgeon General Dr. Joe Thompson has some data on the cost of caring for obese people compared with the cost of caring for those with a normal body mass index, or BMI. The data reflect, as does my own experience, that obesity is far more expensive even than smoking.

Yet obesity as a disease has protected status under the Americans With Disabilities Act. In addition, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently issued an Opinion Letter stating that it was a violation of the ADA for employers to require a health risk assessment for participation in a health plan. This means employers can't require employees to answer simple questions regarding their height and weight, whether they smoke or use alcohol, etc., without violating the law.

And this makes it pretty hard to get people help for their potential ailments. The Opinion Letter means employers have to wait until the potential diabetic becomes fully diabetic before they can intervene. All this talk about health care reform strikes me as ironic. The solutions being discussed are parallel to treating the symptoms of the disease and not the disease itself. And if we wish to stop this insane "American Idol" politics and seek both right and meaningful solutions, we should recognize the problem starts with our own individual choices.

If we do not come to this realization, the nationalization of health care will be the certain result. Regardless of who pays for it, as long as we keep seeking a pill as a cure for every ailment under the sun, keep spending more time being less active, and keep eating and eating, there will simply come a point where we cannot afford all the care we need. At that point, the government will get to decide who gets what. If we are not going to address some hard truths about American culture, I would add federal disclosure laws with teeth to Hankins' list of concerns. Commission-based insurance, pharmacy vendor overrides, bonuses, etc., are all horribly out of sync with the concept of aligned incentives.

Joe Carter

Little Rock

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