Why does health insurance cost so much? There are a number of factors that are specifically responsible for increasing healthcare premiums.

The range of factors include: government mandates, unpaid medical claims, litigation, fraud, advanced medical devices, new and advanced drugs, increased hospital and doctor expenses, shifting costs and general inflation.

These factors are symptoms of a larger problem and the biggest factor of all. Lifestyle choices; everyday we all make choices of what we are going to do with our bodies, what we are going to do to our bodies and what we are going to put in our bodies by what we eat. The best way to reduce healthcare dollars spent is to reduce the demand for healthcare.

Studies show that almost half (40%) of all healthcare expenses are caused by preventable conditions. These conditions are all lifestyle choices such as stress, obesity, tobacco use, lack of exercise and poor diet.

Find a co-op healthcare benefits company with a proactive approach to the healthcare. One that believes in paying benefits to help people live healthy lifestyles on the front end to keep expenses low on the back end for everyone’s benefit. In addition to the usual major medical and prescription coverage look for a company that has benefits for nutritional supplements, yoga, message therapy and fitness club reimbursements.

We will never be able to totally eliminate the need for healthcare, however, a proactive attitude and a healthy lifestyle would go along way to reducing the overall demand for healthcare. Lower demand would result in lower health insurance costs. Companies should consider switching from their traditional health insurance to co-op healthcare with benefits promoting and covering a healthy lifestyle. The company could save as much as 50 percent over their traditional health insurance.