Reply #20: Eating Disorders are part of a class of chronic behavior-related diseases that scare them... [View All]

[TygrBright]

And yes, these diseases are actual, medical conditions, real "diseases," with a behavioral component. And the effective treatment of these diseases involves a complex system of medical intervention, mental health treatment, patient education, and a long, slow process of integrating lifetime behavior modification.

Even when ALL of this is done, even when ALL of these resources are available and of high quality, relapse is frequently part of the recovery profile of these diseases, necessitating further rounds of treatment. Relapse is not a reliable indicator of treatment failure; it is a part of the diseases and their recovery profiles. But because of the relapse factor, and because ALL of these elements are required for successful recovery, these diseases are expensive to address. To effectively treat them, insurance companies would have to pay for the medical intervention, the mental health treatment, the patient education, and the support and professional assistance and tools for lifetime behavior modification.

If you list ALL of the diseases that fall in this class of diseases, you can see why profit-motivated insurance companies are terrified of them. They include:

Nutrition- and endocrinology-related conditions like:
Diabetes
Eating disorders
Obesity

Addiction

Diseases based on compulsive behaviors

Certain kinds of cardiovascular disease

Some allergy-related diseases

And this is by no means a comprehensive list. What these conditions all have in common is that they involve multiple components-- they are mixes of factors that include medical, mental health, behavioral and environmental elements. They can't be "cured" because they are chronic conditions that will pose lifelong risk for the individuals affected. There is no pill or shot or surgery or single intervention that offers a "magic bullet."

And because they are so complex-- involving genetic, physiological, behavioral and environmental source vectors-- all of the research that has already been done has just scratched the surface of understanding how to prevent them, diagnose them reliably, and treat them effectively.

They are all life-threatening conditions that, if uncontrolled, can kill. Most of them, if uncontrolled or poorly-controlled, end up costing large amounts in medical treatments for secondary conditions--sequelae, and the ultimate physical ravages of the diseases. Many of them inflict expensive collateral damage on the patients' families and friends.

And because the private insurance sector is so reluctant to commit to dealing with them, there has been little funding and little attention to building a comprehensive infrastructure of resources for the complex prevention and treatment most of these diseases require. The only way we will ever reduce their cost to all of us, and their toll on lives, is a national effort at health-care cost control that is grounded in a pragmatic, long-term view. And we won't get THAT until we are ALL on the hook for the costs of ALL of our health care.

pessimistically,
Bright