We are living longer, and sicker

I reviewed my blood tests this morning that came from my recent application to re-up my life insurance. All green. My results came back “within healthy range” for such things as cholesterol, blood pressure, PSA level, Triglycerides, etc. All looking good right? So, I look at blood pressure and cholesterol trends over the past 30-50 years and they are all steadily down; by a lot! So we are healthier as a population? No, not even close. Metabolic disease is at an all time high. Between, 1990 and 2017, while overall life expectancy has certainly increased, the years we are living in poor health has far outpaced any gains in life expectancy. So, we are living longer, sicker from diseases, that are non-communicable. As such, acute care hospitals don’t have a large incentive for our behavior to change. The primary need for improvements are cultural. Behavior IS culture. Until we change how we measure our health, with such simple basic things as height to waist ratio, grams of sugar per day, and predict our future health earlier, and make real individual behavior changes, the health care system will continue to base its business model on making money from people living longer and in poorer health. Why would the health care business change if we don’t?