{"id":5608,"date":"2018-12-20T10:30:54","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T15:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/billlosey.com\/?p=5608"},"modified":"2018-12-20T10:30:54","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T15:30:54","slug":"putting-a-price-tag-on-your-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/putting-a-price-tag-on-your-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting a Price Tag on Your Health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a><strong> <\/strong><\/a><em>Being healthy not only makes you feel good, it may also help you financially.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>We constantly hear how\nimportant it is to maintain a healthy lifestyle. <\/strong>That is not always easy, especially in the face of\ntemptation or the easy option of procrastination. For some, the monetary\nbenefits of maintaining a healthy lifestyle may provide an incentive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Being healthy not only\nmakes you feel good, it may also help you financially. <\/strong>For example, a recent Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School\nof Public Health study determined that a 40-year-old who simply moves from\nbeing obese to overweight could save an average of $18,262 in health care costs\nover the rest of his or her lifetime. If that person maintains a healthy\nweight, the average potential savings increase to $31,447.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re wondering how your\nhealth habits might be affecting your bottom line, consider the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Regular preventative care\ncan help reduce potential health care costs.<\/strong> Even minor illnesses can lead to missed work, missed opportunities,\nand potentially lost wages. Serious illnesses often involve major costs like\nhospital stays, medical equipment, and doctor\u2019s fees. Preventative dentistry\nmay help you reduce dental costs as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In a way, staying healthy\nhelps our potential to save for retirement.<\/strong> If your health declines to the point where you cannot work, that hurts\nyour income and your ability to contribute to retirement accounts. The threat\nis real: the Social Security Administration notes that a quarter of us will\nbecome disabled at some point during our working years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Overweight workers may be\nsubjected to wage discrimination.<\/strong> A\nLinkedIn study of almost 4,000 full-time and part-time workers found that the\nworkers whose weights were greater than normal earned an average of $2,512 less\nannually than the others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Higher weight seems to be\na factor in overall health care costs for many.<\/strong> Ask the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\nThe CDC notes that per-year health care expenses are about 41% higher ($4,870)\nfor an obese individual than for a person of normal weight ($3,400). The\nbiggest factor in this difference: prescription drug costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Some habits that lead to\npoor health can be expensive in themselves.<\/strong> Smoking is the classic example. A pack of cigarettes costs anywhere\nfrom $5-14, which means ballpark expenses of $2,000-5,000 or more a year in\nexpenses for a pack-a-day smoker. Smokers also pay higher premiums for health,\ndisability, and life insurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By focusing on your health,\neliminating harmful habits, and employing preventative care, you may be able to\nimprove your self-confidence and quality of life. You may also be able to\nreduce expenses, enjoy more of your money, and boost your overall financial health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Being healthy not only makes you feel good, it may also help you financially. We constantly hear how important it is to maintain a healthy lifestyle. That is not always easy, especially in the face of temptation or the easy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billlosey.com\/knowledge-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}