A July 2015 article published in Health Affairs projects the overall increase in health care costs from 2014 to 2024 to be "modest."

It better be.Most Americans couldn't handle the same sorts of increases incurred in the 10 years prior. According to Keiser Family Foundation analysis, the average payments by health care insurance enrollees towards deductibles rose 256 percent, the average payments towards coinsurance increased 107 percent, and overall patient-cost sharing spending rose 77 percent.In that same interval, the average worker's salary increased 32 percent.The federal government has been adversely affected, too. In 1980, federal health care spending didn't quite reach $100 billion. In 2010, it had soared to $800 billion. In the Congressional Budget Outlook Office 2012, federal spending for health care is projected to be about $1600 billion by 2020.And you know how the federal government gets its money: taxes. So you're really being passed the health care baton twice - after being bludgeoned with it.Luckily, you can perform a countermove to parry the blows. It's called exercise.Now this is not to say that sedentary Americans are solely responsible for escalating health care costs. Many of the other factors that contribute to it, however, you can't control.For instance, we've instituted a fee-for-service system that reimburses doctors and hospitals for each visit, as well as each test and procedure that comes with that. While that encourages unnecessary testing, the fear of malpractice lawsuits and the exorbitant jury awards that often result from them (another factor that increases health care costs) virtually guarantees it.Fortunately, frequent exercise virtually guarantees something else: less need for the health care system.So much so that an Academy of Medical Royal Colleges news release is titled, "Exercise: The miracle cure and the doctor's role in prescribing it." The report analyzes 200 studies to gauge how more exercise in the United Kingdom would improve the country's overall health.While the report calls the potential savings in money"incalculable," it establishes that 30 minutes of exercise five times a week significantly reduces the incidence of many diseases. Most notably, the risk of breast cancer drops 25 percent, the chance of dementia or stroke decreases by 30 percent, the risk of heart disease drops more than 40 percent, and the chance of bowel cancer drops 45 percent.In the news release, the lead author Scarlett McNally says, "[The report] is about reminding doctors and patients that fitting small amounts of regular exercise into their schedule can make a huge difference to their health."One huge difference occurs in how you age. Delaying aging and the health challenges that result eliminates many doctor's visits, as well as the need for many over-the-counter and prescribed medicines. It also allows you to function far better at as you age.For example, researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada studied world-class track and field athletes in their 80s against others who had aged successfully and remained fully independent.Through muscle biopsies, the researchers found that the athletes had nearly one-third more muscle fibers and nerves in their legs, which produced bigger muscles and provided more strength. Enough strength, in fact, to score 25 percent higher on tests.While you may be nowhere near 80, those over 25 and not engaged in regular bouts of strength training lose muscle mass. Usually, most who don't exercise in their 20s and 30s, lose 3 to 5 percent of their muscle mass each decade.After that, losing some muscle mass is inevitable for all, but the loss is mitigated by exercise, particularly regular and relatively intense strength training.Another element exercise appears to positively affect is food consumption. As you well know, obesity and the health problems that result from it puts quite a strain on the health care system. The American Heart Association estimates that Americans have spent about $190 billion each of the last few years on weight-related medical bills.In research published last March in Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise, researchers created a calorie deficiency in 12 women subjects by restricting food intake for nine hours. The restriction caused the women not only to secrete more of the hunger hormone ghrelin, but also to eat an average of 944 calories at the buffet meal served after the restriction was limited.Then the researchers created the same calorie deficiency in the women by having them run for 90 minutes at a moderate intensity level on treadmills. Secretion of ghrelin diminished, and so did the number of the calories consumed at the buffet meal following the exercise.The women ate an average of 660 calories, about a third fewer calories.To conclude, please remember the title of the aforementioned Academy of Medical Royal Colleges article: "Exercise: The miracle cure and the doctor's role in prescribing it."Your doctor may not fully expound upon the many benefits of exercise, but it's probably not because he wants you enslaved by the present system. According to a 2015 Journal of Physical Activity and Health article, more than half the doctors trained in the U.S. in 2013, did not take a single course on exercise. Moreover, the majority of medical schools do not offer courses on exercise.