Do you know the increase in health spending is a serious concern for governments of all economic levels? A recent report published by the World Health Organization showed that global health spending has reached US $9 trillion which is equivalent to 11% of global GDP. Major consequences of massive spending on health care are governments’ austerity measures that significantly reduce education and poverty alleviation budgets. To cut back the health budget, governments devise a new approach to tackle people’s health issues which is called preventative healthcare. While traditional healthcare involves diagnosing diseases that have shown symptoms and treating them with medicines, in contrast, preventative healthcare refers to preventing diseases before the onset of disease symptoms or disease. Preventative care is a crucial factor in reducing overall healthcare costs because the cost of treating patients with chronic diseases is far greater than the cost resulting from the operational charges of preventative health services.
Understanding Preventative Care
Preventative care means the early intervention of diseases before they get out of control to the extent that they are not curable. Health professionals and clinics offer different types of preventative care. There are dozens of preventative healthcare services available. Some of these services are clinic-specific, while many others are general. Despite many variations, three common types of services are invariably available everywhere. These three are yearly check-ups, cancer screening, and vaccination.
The Financial Burden of Chronic Diseases
Treatment of chronic diseases like Cancer, Diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and mental illness is so expensive. It continues to increase exponentially and it is projected by 2030 these diseases will result in spending of $47 trillion by the world population. For example, 90% of healthcare costs in the USA go to treating and managing chronic diseases, and mental illness. To minimize these staggering healthcare costs, preventative care can help to intervene, and manage these diseases, thereby, reducing the massive spending.
The idea behind preventative care is making a few changes in your habits may increase your chance of living well, and prolong your life. For example, stopping smoking, eating healthy diets, reducing alcohol consumption, and living more actively means you are lucky to have a healthy lifestyle. This healthy lifestyle will safeguard you against affected with chronic diseases like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, stroke, and mental illness.
Cost Savings of Preventative Care
Spiraling healthcare costs are a major concern for people and governments. So what a welcoming approach it would be if something is found that will eliminate healthcare costs, but will help to save money instead? Does preventative care reduce healthcare costs, and save money? Preventable causes of death include tobacco smoking, poor diet, inactive lifestyle, and misuse of alcohol resulting in 900,000 deaths annually in the USA, which is equivalent to 40% of mortality rates. Preventable measures like counseling for adults to quit smoking, screening for colorectal cancer, and influenza vaccination can reduce mortality rates. However, it does not necessarily mean that preventative care reduces healthcare costs, and saves money. So, a statement like preventative care can save billions of dollars appears to be overreaching. One significant finding of studies is preventative care can save money in some cases, however, in other cases, it can add cost to healthcare bills. For example, screening cost will exceed the money patient supposed to saved for the treatment in the event of an illness.
Barriers to preventative care
Despite convincing propositions in favor of preventative care that the measure is less expensive yet can potentially reduce future treatment costs; a few impediments are blocking its implementation. A major impediment is cost. Simple health checkups like blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, and allergy tests are inexpensive. However, complicated health checkups like mammograms, coloscopies, HIV screening, and tuberculosis screening are expensive. Many people with low incomes cannot afford to undertake these expensive health checkups.
Ease of access to preventative care is another impediment. Unlike people living in cities, inhabitants of remote areas don’t have many hospitals and clinics. Getting health checkups associated with preventative care is a challenge for them.
After access, the next barrier is the lack of awareness. Many people can’t realize the importance of preventative care, thereby, shun this service.
The last barrier is the lack of funding. Government funding is a major concern for healthcare providers. Budget cuts may lead to the stopping of government funding for preventative care services. Healthcare providers will then be unable to provide the service.
Policy and Community Initiatives
Promoting preventative care is not only the responsibility of the government alone, society has also its due role. The government, for its part, can formulate new preventative care-friendly policies. For example, it can make sure that the service is free of cost. In addition, it can declare a small incentive for anyone undertaking this service. And, lastly, mass campaigns making preventative care the focal point will make people more knowledgeable about it.
Many communities have welfare clubs or organizations. They can make an important role in building peoples awareness about prevalent health issues, and preventative health care.
With the advancement of medical science, people now live longer than at any other time in history. However, this long lifespan is also problematic. As people age, they are affected by one or two chronic diseases. According to the UK’s National Institute for Health, and Care Research, by 2035 67.8% of people over 65 years old, for example, will be affected with at least two chronic diseases. Treating these diseases is expensive resulting in a substantial economic burden for the government and people. They also hamper the quality of life. the ju
