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Report: two-thirds of West Michigan overweight, while health care costs skyrocket

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Leaders of local health care providers assembled at Grand Valley State University’s Pew Campus in downtown Grand Rapids Friday morning to hear the 10th annual West Michigan Health Care Economic Forecast.

While the good news is that the west side of the state is slightly healthier than the Detroit side, overall, the area’s overall health hasn’t seen much improvement. 20 percent of the population still has a binge drinking problem, while more two-thirds of West Michigan is overweight or obese. Teen smoking has dramatically lowered, but here’s the catch--teens are vaping now, instead of smoking traditional cigarettes.

While West Michigan is not exactly the picture of health, another tough pill to swallow is the skyrocketing cost of health care for people who check into a hospital.

Robert Casalou, is the president and CEO, Mercy Health and Saint Joseph Mercy Health System. He says it’s not just the patients who are frustrated at the extraordinary financial cost of care. Hospital staff are frustrated as well.

“I think employers have beyond lost patience with the cost of care. I think now they are doing everything they can do to lower health care cost, some of that is shifting where they say, ‘you know what I am cutting out the middle man I am just going straight to the provider, I am going to provide limited choice, and move all of the risk to the provider.’ I think that is the one thing you see standing here a year from now that there has been a lot of traction

Tina Freese Decker, president and CEO, Spectrum Health agreed, she says,  the community has to come together to solve how to lower the cost of care.

“All though this is going to be very hard to do, it is going to take a lot of time, effort, collaboration and perseverance, I believe we have the right tools, technology and people…because we are unique in our community that we want to collaborate with others, to really drive this forward and make it happen.

One bit of good news according to the health report, there have been substantial decreases in the number of uninsured Michiganders since 2011.

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