Jun 22, 2009
As an advocate of a greater focus on prevention in healthcare, the recent Wall Street Journal article entitled “The Myth of Prevention” http://tinyurl.com/lp9w2y caught my eye and interest. If we are to be successful in creating savings from a new model for healthcare, one that places greater emphasis on preventation, we must first define what we mean by “preventative care.”
The article’s author points out that “It is true that if the prevention strategies we are talking about are behavioral things – eat better, lose weight, exercise more, smoke less, wear a seat belt – then they cost very little and they do save money by keeping people healthy.” That sounds like as good a starting point for a definition as any to me.
The majority of our current system of medical care is geared to provide “disease management” rather than “health care.” The system as we know it has provided our nation with much, yet the end of its useful life is within sight (some say by looking in our rearview mirror!). To be sure, healthier people require less care. Care costs money.
I hope that we as Americans in all of our progress have not lost our ability to master the basics. The lifestyle of the average American has changed dramatically over the last 100 years as has the disease profile that affects our society as a whole. We are different people with different problems than those of our forefathers of a century ago, yet our system was largely shaped by medical reformers in the early 19th century.
Despite the remarkable advances in technology and the science of medicine, very few in our country would readily claim that they’ve mastered the basics of healthy living. Proper diet complemented by plenty of good, clean water and sufficient regular exercise balanced by deep and restorative rest are clearly not the norm. It is clear to me that to move forward sustainably, we need to educate, get back to the basics and pick the low lying fruit in the field of preventative care.
As for the economics of the situation, such a change would (if I am not mistaken in my confidence in the wonders of the ingenuity of the American people and the market economy) unleash a wave of new products, tools and educational systems to support this new focus. What do you think?
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