Poor health is costing you money

Congress is about to start debating health care reform again and I'm wondering if they haven't forgotten a huge issue that costs us billions every year. No, it's not the way the medical complex insurance rackets overcharge and hustles all of us out of our cash. I'm talking about the persistent health disparities that plague minority communities even in the era of a black president. (That that president has made health care his signature focus of the moment is a beautifully sad irony).

Check out this video, where Dr. Willarda V. Edwards, the president of the National Medical Association, breaks down the costs of health care disparities. In it, she explains that between 2003 and 2006 health disparities along racial lines cost $1.2 TRILLION in the US. What are those disparities? Higher rates of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, HIV/AIDS, infant mortality and other ailments in black and Hispanic communities compared with whites. Its even more frustrating to think about because many of those ailments are preventable or treatable as long as people have access to doctors or preventative care.

Clearly health care is a huge national issue that could sink our economy if we don't get it under control. But the fact that many of the diseases that cost us so much every year are preventable should make all of us think about what it's costing us if we're not eating right, exercising and seeing our doctors regularly (provided, of course, you have health insurance) already. How many times did you run or walk this week, and if you didn't, how much might you have to pay later in bills to treat hypertension?

Keep that in mind as you work on your finances in 2010.

My three economic challenges to President Elect Barack Obama

The election is over. Obama won by a landslide, no doubt with the help of many readers of this blog.

But even having won a majority of the popular vote and with his party in control of both houses of Congress, making the kinds of changes that Barack Obama promises won't be easy and will require more than political maneuvering. Especially on the economy, much work and sacrifice will have to be made by the same electorate the ushered Obama to power. Here's my top three things that I think Obama will focus on to right the economy, what it will take to get them done, and a few suggestions for all of us to take heed of.

To ensure our economic future, Obama MUST:

1. Push through Congress meaningful healthcare reform that can actually be implemented. His campaign platform called for an aggressive plan to cover all Americans that is sure to be costly, but the challenges are many. A Democrat-controlled Congress will likely support his plan, but the healthcare lobby still looms large. Obama will have to be careful -- and rightfully so -- to make meaningful reform that is affordable to taxpayers and consumers but doesn't deter investment in the medical sciences or cause a catastrophic loss of jobs in the medical care industry.

Our responsibility -- Get healthier. Obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, cancers, HIV infection: For its wealth and relative prevalence of available medical facilities, America is one of the sickest nations of earth. Many of those ailments are not just extremely costly, but preventable. We'd all do ourselves and the new president a favor by eating better and taking a damn walk every day.

2. Re-regulate the financial markets -- but not too much. Wall Street's become too much like a casino, less a place where people take calculated risks that pay off when sound management or daring innovations are successful and more like a gambling parlor where bettors wager (and often lose) money only to sell their bad debts to the next sucker who comes along. Those suckers ultimately ended up being the American taxpayer and that can't continue. Obama's choice for Treasury secretary will be his most important cabinet pick besides outside Secretary of State.

Our responsibility: Continue investing, but do so responsibly. Panicking, abandoning banks that are still solvent and pulling out of 401(k)s is not the way to go. Neither, however, are irrationally bidding up the prices of IPO shares like during the tech boom, or homes like what happened in the earlier part of this decade. Weaning ourselves off credit won't hurt, either, but I'll come back to that later this week.

3. Mandate a financial literacy curriculum in elementary and high schools. Yes, this is a wild-card that wasn't part of Obama's election platform. But it stands, in my opinion, as the number-one challenge to our economic future. The housing bust and credit crisis both have roots in the fact that American schools continue to churn out workers educated enough to earn decent salaries but woefully equipped to know how to handle the money. Obama fails to make this a national priority at the peril of us all.

Our responsibility: First, make sure you understand the basics of personal finance. Pick up 401(k)s for Dummies or Investing for Dummies. Bookmark this blog. Watch CNBC or read the Wall Street Journal then look up terms you don't understand. Then teach your kids what you're learning. By the time they get out of elementary school, your child should have a savings account, a college fund and understanding that using a credit card doesn't mean the money won't have to be paid back.