I publish the article by Mauro Berruto, coach of the Italian national volleyball team, wrote for La Stampa in favor of sport as a tool to reduce health care costs.
One euro invested to encourage the practice, it will save 3 to the State
The alarm raised by Prime Minister Monti on future unsustainability of the national health system was a punch in the stomach. He hit hard, making that the presence of three factors (economic crisis, an aging population and consequent increase in demand for health) one of our constitutional rights is likely to become utopia. To address this issue today it needs a look oriented to the future, trying to see what others cannot: who focuses on the problems never sees the solutions!
There is a powerful tool, a miracle drug: sport. If political action, which is the art of defining the hierarchy of important things, considered the thousands of pages of scientific evidence demonstrating that regular sports reduces the incidence and costs of the classic diseases of the third millennium in a quantifiable, the solution is obvious.
The pandemic of physical inactivity that opens the door to cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, forms of oncological conditions, personality disorders is the real enemy. The relationship between investment in sport and saving national service is not an opinion but a scientific fact: one euro invested it saves at least three, in the long run, the national health system. Today we talk about linear cuts or taxes on soft drinks, but the real investment in our future is to be motivate, together with our children, at the physical activity as a daily habit. It happens, without going too far, in all the Scandinavian countries. Be a coincidence that these are among the few European countries with AAA credit rating agencies? Imagine the beauty of an Italian road to wellness, based on the principles of our food culture and the sport, not just looked at.
Our country would have the potential to become a world start-up , a global benchmark. Need a revolutionary act that places education sport in the hierarchy of the important things from the primary school, the place where you will learn the passions. Regular physical activity is not only an individual act today. It’s a civic duty, it expresses respect for the community. It is the most effective way to defend our constitutional right to health. The parameter to measure the degree of civilization of a country is the excellence that can be seen in its hospitals, schools and sports. We could be that kind of country, if only we believed and wanted. The sport is an instrument of socialization, integration, gym of rules, school of effort, discipline, excellence. All agree that these are keywords that today Italy needs.
However there is a disruptive innovation: sport is an economic investment that can save our health system. Have nothing to do, for once, the words racing, performance, victory: they will be wonderful side effects of an increased number of sports practitioners. The priority is to improve our human capital and convince us that yet another Renaissance of our country, in economic and emotional, will also include the sport culture.
