In her July 20 column, “Save America money: Light up,” Froma Harrop raises some interesting points regarding prevention but extends the illusion that the cost of health care is separate, discrete and distinct from other expenses in American lives. Harrop’s article also ignores a growing body of evidence from public health that prevention addressing chronic diseases is essential to reducing health-care costs. According to an article, “Improving the Effectiveness of Health Care and Public Health,” by Yaneer Bar-Yam (American Journal of Public Health, March 2006), “A system that delivers effective population-based care can demonstrate clearly the importance of prevention in the overall health care system.”
Our health-care system in the United States is reactive rather than proactive, which over time causes a heavier economic burden, as stated by Bar-Yam. Cost-effectiveness of prevention in the long term implies that even a small proportion of the overall costs devoted to public health can enable the larger proportion, devoted to individual medical care, to be allocated to needed individual services not provided by the current overburdened system.
The results are a longer, healthier life span, lower annual costs for health care, a more productive and competitive workforce and a resulting healthier economy.
MARCUS PLESCIA, M.D.
DAVID P. HOFFMAN
Atlanta
The writers are, respectively, president and chairman of the Legislative and Policy Committee of the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors.
(c) 2008 Providence Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
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