Study Shows Preventive Health Care Might Not Be A True Cost Saver

Study Shows Preventive Health Care Might Not Be A True Cost Saver in General Healthcare

In an interesting upcoming study, new data will show that preventive care might not bring the major cost savings many lawmakers — and President Obama — are counting on to help pay for sweeping health reform.

According to the Washington Post, long-standing clinical trials will show that the youngest Americans with chronic conditions, specifically diabetes, will add to overall health spending even with early preventive care intervention.

Even those who are older and participate in aggressive programs to control their conditions will only break even in costs after 25 years.

This isn’t good news for those counting on positive predictions from the Congressional Budget Office on reform efforts — the CBO only looks 10 years ahead for savings.

To alleviate this problem, some Democratic lawmakers are proposing legislation to extend that window to 25 years. Critics will likely point out that this would simply be a way to manipulate the data to appease certain political and policy positions.

Still, it’s hard to argue the logic behind preventive care and the value of health insurance plans that cover it. While the article looked at data from patients who already have diabetes, we also have to think about how preventive medicine can stop some from developing chronic conditions. That’s truly where the savings in preventive care lies.

More preventive care leads to fewer cases of chronic conditions which leads to lower spending. Reasonable?

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