By Dr. Daniel W. JonesAt a recent health care policy meeting, an analyst remarked, "There is no health care policy in Washington these days " only budget policy." Thinking of health care policy only in the context of short-term budget results and profits and loss leads to bad thinking and misguided health policy.
Case in point, one of the more callous and disturbing health economic theories making the rounds these days is that prevention is expensive and it's often cheaper to let people get sick, or even die. So when did human beings become disposable consumer appliances? When did we lose sight of the tremendous return on investment that prevention brings? It's time to set the record straight.
Beyond the value that we place on good health, preventive health services should be evaluated on their ability to both reduce costs and vastly improve our health and well being. Prevention " including childhood vaccines, breast cancer screening and blood pressure control " keeps us healthy by catching illnesses early and limiting their often devastating and deadly effects.
Many preventive services, such as taking an aspirin a day to prevent heart disease and quitting smoking, do save money when compared to the costs of treating disease. Admittedly, others may not produce the same level of short-term savings, but measuring prevention's value based solely on easily identified savings is extremely short sighted " and misleading.
These bottom-line measures do not capture the enormous economic benefits that preventive services can generate. Look at the long-term return on investment. A healthier workforce translates into greater productivity, additional GDP and tax revenues. And these dollars and cents benefits pale in comparison to the value of improving our quality of life.
However, effective prevention is still a work in progress in our country. For example, while most adults have been screened for heart disease risk factors, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, only 40 percent stick to their treatment, including taking their medications. Only 67 percent of women receive mammograms within a two-year period; less than half of adults over 50 have been screened as recommended for colorectal cancer. These fall into the category of "missed opportunities." This is also a reflection of our difficult and broken health care system. With a better system " with an appropriate focus on prevention " lives could be saved.
A recent Partnership for Prevention study found that by boosting the use of five preventive services (aspirin-a-day, smoking cessation, colorectal cancer screening, mammograms and influenza immunizations) to 90 percent of the target population, more than 110,000 lives could be saved each year.
With such obvious benefits, policymakers must do all they can to assure that preventive services are more widely used. Lack of access is a barrier to quality health care for millions of Americans and the public and private sectors must do more to implement common sense solutions that recognize the benefits of prevention in combating chronic illnesses.
The American Heart Association is committed to improving the health of all Americans by aggressively promoting and developing effective programs to prevent and treat heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes. We are committed to educating Americans about the value of taking action to protect and improve their health. We also support research to detect and treat serious conditions earlier. And as we unravel the mysteries of the human genome, we may be able to identify sooner and more precisely who will develop different conditions and intervene quickly
In the final days of the presidential campaign, the two presidential candidates will debate one of the most important issues to confront our nation in a generation: the shape and form of our nation's health care system. Many questions have yet to be answered but we can only hope details will be forthcoming at upcoming events, including the first 2008 presidential debate Sept. 26 at the University of Mississippi.
Certainly, there will be sharp disagreement on many of the specifics of health care reform. That is to be expected. However, we hope that there can be a consensus on one critical issue missing from the green eyeshades' balance sheets: the importance of prevention to the long-term physical and fiscal health of our nation. Prevention is an investment we can count on. It's an investment we can afford. It's an investment we must make. (Dr. Daniel Jones is president of the American Heart Association and vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.)
Visit http://www.debate.olemiss.edu for more information about the presidential debate at the University of Mississippi.
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