Three Steps to Increase Your 'Health Capital'

By Kristin Wehner of Entrepreneur.com.

Here are three big questions: Do you know how much money is in your checking account right now?

Would you buy a new car without first researching what you wanted?

If you were given $1 million at birth to cover all your expenses in your lifetime, would you cross your fingers and hope it would last until your final breath?

Most likely, you have at least a rough idea of how much money is in your checking account right now, and you probably won't be waiting until the year 2012 to check it next.

You wouldn't show up to buy a car without knowing what you want, why you want it, and what you can afford.

And if you were given $1 million to cover all of your lifetime expenses, you wouldn't ignore the potential power in that chunk of change. You would find the investments with the highest return and optimize each dollar.

So why do we treat our health differently than any other asset?

Health as an Asset

Health insurance hasn't always been a part of an employment compensation package. It was born out of a World War II wage-freeze. Employers began looking for fringe benefits to attract employees, and health care eventually become a national benefit of employment.

While this system originally increased the number of people who had access to health care coverage, for many of us it has also functioned in loco parentis -- in the place of a parent -- creating an alarming lack of awareness in our own health and health care consumption.