An Easy Way Forward on Health Costs

The fastest way for insurers to lower healthcare costs is also the easiest way to improve how people care for themselves and others. In three words, the way forward—for insurers and individuals—is basic life support (BLS). In three letters, the way to save a life is through CPR. If insurers provide incentives to customers to learn CPR, if people take CPR certification courses, we will have reason to rejoice. We will have more people with the ability to respond to a life-threatening emergency with a life-saving procedure. Patients will, in turn, have fewer hospital stays and quicker recovery times. This invaluable procedure will yield valuable savings in time and money, too. Insurers must lead this effort, infusing the public with a sense of purpose by purposefully improving people’s confidence about what CPR can do. By explaining why CPR is a necessity, insurers can show people how to save lives. When every second counts, people can then count on themselves to not only be good Samaritans but to also deliver the goods, so to speak, when there is no time to wait for first responders to arrive on the scene or paramedics to provide additional help. People who can administer CPR possess the best insurance policy: life itself. That policy is portable. It transcends cities, counties, states, countries and continents. It is a policy for personal empowerment and public enrichment, offering what no amount of money can match and no measure of fame can equal. It is a policy to save lives and strengthen communities. It is also a policy to advance the interests of the insurance industry. It is a policy with no liabilities and many rewards, both professional and personal. The former is a reward that puts insurers at the forefront of innovation involving science, technology, and medicine. The latter rewards policyholders—and feels rewarding—because of what they alone can do: save lives. See also: The Science That Is Reinventing Healthcare   CPR is too important a skill not to learn. It is too vital to life and longevity for us not to recognize its benefits. It is too indispensable for a health-conscious citizenry not to know its advantages. It is too advantageous for insurers not to acknowledge its worth. It is too worthwhile for a community not to accept its virtues. By promoting CPR, insurers can convert their support of life-saving techniques into a lifetime of savings for their respective clients. Insurers can reinvest that money by expanding coverage or making coverage more accessible to those who need it but cannot afford it. Such is the ROI of CPR: a skill that works—a skill that every worker should study—for the good of all people. Too convenient a chance not to capture, now is the time to seize an opportunity that can secure the credibility of insurers and sustain the safety of policyholders—of people—nationwide. If insurers fulfill that mission, the dividends will accrue for generations to come. Together, insurers and individuals can accomplish that mission.