Does preventive care save money - part 2
A few months ago I commented on an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that questioned the cost-effectiveness of disease prevention (1). The article had the rather astonishing title "Does prevention save money?". It turned out the authors had a rather peculiar idea of prevention. They weren′t thinking of healthy eating, physical activity, smoking cessation, stress reduction etc. Instead, their main interest lay in the cost-effective use of medical diagnostics to catch diseases at their most treatable stages.
There is nothing wrong with medical tests to detect problems as early as possible, but this obviously does nothing to prevent these problems from occurring in the first place. Many of today's health problems are avoidable lifestyle diseases — think of obesity and its consequences — and one would have thought that this fact wasn′t lost on medical doctors.
Of course prevention pays, and a recent report from the Trust for America′s Health makes this very clear (2). The paper, titled "Healthier America: Investments in disease prevention yields significant savings, stronger communities", presents a detailed analysis of the kinds of savings that can be realized by relatively modest investments in practical measures:
"This study … examines how much the country could save in health care costs if we invested more in disease prevention, specifically by funding proven community-based programs that result in increased levels of physical activity, improved nutrition (both quality and quantity of food), and a reduction in smoking and other tobacco use rates." (2)
The authors based their estimated changes in disease risks, program costs and savings in treatment costs on published studies that focused on:
- prevention programs that do not require medical treatment,
- programs that target communities rather than individuals, and
- evidence-based programs that have been shown to reduce disease through improving physical activity and preventing smoking and other tobacco use in communities.
- more than $2.8 billion annually in 1 to 2 years,
- more than $16 billion annually within 5 years, and
- nearly $18 billion annually in 10 to 20 years.
"The nation′s economic future demands we find ways to reduce health care costs. Preventing people from getting sick is one of the most important ways we can drive costs down." (2)
And this undoubtedly holds true for other countries as well.
Sources
- Cohen JT, Neumann PJ, Weinstein MC. Does preventive care save money? Health econmics and the presidential candidates. N Engl J Med 2008;358(7):661-663. [Full Text]
- Levi J et al. Healthier America: Investments in disease prevention yields significant savings, stronger communities. Trust for America′s Health. July 2008. [Full Text]
Yes, Prevention saves money...but not through "medical diagnostics" but as you said through "healthy eating, physical activity, smoking cessation, stress reduction etc." The writers of that Article might promoting the business of Diagnostic centers. Off course timely detection of ailment will help to stop further deterioration. But the title of the Article is misleading.
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I think this counter argument article brings forth a great point that must be clarified before any new policies are put into action - that is that we need to understand what is meant by prevention care. Obviously, there are two kinds that are many times referred to being the same when they are not. One form of prevention is that of scree nings that detect diseases that may be there anyways, but the screening prevents a person from continuing to live with a disease or condition undiagnosed and therefore at this point be able to implement certain procedures or lifestyle changes into his or her life from that point on. However, prevention is a misnomer because the disease was not actually prevented, but rather somethings may have been prevented just not the disease itself. The other prevention back by this article, refers to prevention which is my my opinion what health care should really mean when the term prevention is used - that is preventing certain diseases and conditions in people because of education or intervention of some sort. From a medical standpoint, there are many conditions and diseases that can in fact be prevented on a large scale over a population if the intervention/prevention is done the correct way. Cost analysis should be done from this stand point in the health care system when asking the question "Does prevention save money". In the mean time, we need to clarify what we mean by prevention before arguments are made for either side. Clearly we cannot have policy change until this happens.
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EXACTLY...prevention saves money.mostly people don't bother about health and they don't gave any attention in diseases prevention so how they can save money so if in initial stage we gave attention in health care then we can save our money.few people are avoid their health problems and at last they have to pay their problems cost so its better we should take care about diseases preventions so we can save money and save health.i would like to appreciate to your efforts and i also want to say thanks to u to giving me such a nice and informative article.
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I was just thinking about Does preventive care save money - part 2 and you've really helped out. Thanks!
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Long waits for the rest of us, including really ill people. Seriously, it is really annoying to have to wait for appointments for the doctor when the doctor is seeing the nervous nellies, or the malingerers. Plus it could be to the detriment of the health of everyone that has to wait. We only have limited resources, including doctors, and I am not sure that we want to pay doctors to hold hands, if the system is continually abused by the same minority of people. I actually like the model of at least having nurse practitioners screen these out.As far as evidence based medicine goes, don't something like 80% of problems clear up on their own, without going to the doctor? So how do you handle that? I mean, if that's the evidence (I forget what the actual statistic was) shouldn't everyone just stay home and try to get well on their own?
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Great site. I like the way you explain everything without using complicated terms.
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Great site. I like the way you explain everything without using complicated terms.
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