Saturday, July 18, 2009

One piece of birthday cake too many

Ever have a parent or a friend end up in the emergency room with a heart attack?


In the US, chronic diseases account for more than 75 cents of every dollar spent on healthcare, and are the #1 cause of death and disability.


Yet the amount spent in the US on prevention is $10 per person. That is about the cost of my monthly no-frills gym membership.


An ounce of prevention here is worth a pound of cure.


We can only hope that the new healthcare bill wending its way through the halls of Congress will put more of an incentive behind prevention and wellness.


As we see, the best way of moderating the cost of interventional healthcare is not to use it at all.


According to the Almanac of Chronic Disease, 4 out of 5 Americans would rather spend on preventive measures than on treating diseases after detection. Then how come my gym wasn't very crowded today? I bet there were more people at the local ER than on the elliptical this afternoon.


Let's hope that Congress gets the message and allocates more money to improve the health literacy and the coverage of the average American.


There are 46 million good reasons (the number of uninsured in America) to give more people coverage and that gym membership.

No comments: