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Is Preventative Care Really Cost Effective?

Posted on 03/09/2010 6:59:01 PM PST by hagendaz

I keep hearing Obama and Pelosi saying we need to increase preventative care to lower the cost of healthcare.

I would concede the point that preventative care can potentially improve the quality and length of one’s life, but how does it lower healthcare costs in the long run? Isn’t someone who takes great care of his or herself going to require more healthcare over their life than someone who eats fast food every day and drops dead of a massive coronary at age 50. Does preventative care prevent death? Well until it does, I have to assume we will all still be dying of something eventually, and the stronger you are when the Grim Reaper comes to punch your card the longer he will have to sit around waiting in the hospital for your body to give out. Again, my argument here is not to debate the obvious benefits of preventative care and staying healthy, It’s a personal choice I would recommend to everyone. My only point is that people who take care of themselves presumably live longer, and thus die later in life so their required end of life care will presumably last longer as does the period of their life when they are consuming massive amounts of pharmaceuticals.

Is my logic flawed?

On the other hand maybe Nancy and Obama's only concern is to get us to prevent any serious health problems till we are each old enough (60 or so) as to ONLY be eligible for Obama’s pain killer health plan.


TOPICS: Government; Health/Medicine; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: healthcare; preventative; prevention

1 posted on 03/09/2010 6:59:01 PM PST by hagendaz
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2 posted on 03/09/2010 7:00:34 PM PST by combat_boots (The Lion of Judah cometh. Hallelujah. Gloria Patri, Filio et Spirito Sancto.)
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To: hagendaz

Obama doesn’t know what he’s talking about, as usual.


3 posted on 03/09/2010 7:03:13 PM PST by darkangel82 (I don't have a superiority complex, I'm just better than you.)
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To: hagendaz

We are all very ill with mortality so preventative care will have any effect at all on that disease.

However, preventative care does add to the quality of life as one ages.

See my tag line for more information. I co-opted it from my friend who is 99 years and 8 months old.


4 posted on 03/09/2010 7:09:52 PM PST by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously... You'll never live through it.)
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To: hagendaz

Perhaps we shouldn’t have health care at all. Why interfere with God’s plans for us? If we get sepsis or pneumonia or an infection, just let it run its course.

After all, if we take penicillin or an antibiotic and our cured, won’t we just need more care later on, and won’t it cost more money?

Let the strong survive and the weak be winnowed before they breed more of their pathetic strain!

Unless they can afford to pay for the treatments themselves, out of their own pocket. Those people - the ones who have learned how to make enough money to care for themselves - deserve to live. They’ve proven it with their bank accounts.

But free the rest of us from having to support the rest of the losers.

So, am I being sarcastic or not?


5 posted on 03/09/2010 7:10:11 PM PST by worst-case scenario (Striving to reach the light)
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To: hagendaz

But that logic presumes that once a “life threatening” condition is caught, if it’s late in the game, the person would die from it w/out having it treated.

For example: Early breast cancer detection can lead to a lumpectomy perhaps w/out the need for radiation or chemotherapy. Late stage breast cancer detection, leads to more extensive surgery, chemo, radiation, etc. And even w/late stage detection, the patient could live for years. Therefore the cost of early detection does save money. Your presumption is that they will die from late detection, which is not necessarily the case.


6 posted on 03/09/2010 7:12:01 PM PST by dawn53
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To: hagendaz

Preventive care?? Didnt they try to stop women from having Testing for Breast Cancer (Mammograms) until after 50?

Is that the preventive care they are talking about?


7 posted on 03/09/2010 7:12:08 PM PST by Venturer
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To: hagendaz

They say that we need more preventative healthcare, but then they also say that we have too many tests. What do they think tests are? They are preventative healthcare. They are simply talking out of both sides of their mouth.


8 posted on 03/09/2010 7:21:45 PM PST by Brilliant
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To: dawn53
I dare say the cost of my colonoscopy is a fraction of what treatment would have cost had those little thingies not been “nipped in the bud”.
9 posted on 03/09/2010 7:22:01 PM PST by gov_bean_ counter (Sarah Palin - For such a time as this...)
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To: darkangel82

You’re right. It’s been known since the 1980s that preventive care increases total expenditure for the population even as it lowers individual risk. The reason is that it costs so much to screen everyone to find an unusual case of whatever.

The US spends far more on preventive care than countries with government run health care. The reason is that individuals are willing to spend more to lower their risk. Government bean counters can only see costs. To them, people are costs and preventive care is something that can easily be cut. After all, only a few die from lack of it.


10 posted on 03/09/2010 7:24:35 PM PST by cosine
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To: hagendaz

Some serious conditions like cancer cannot be prevented only diagnosed early when their is a good chance for cure or treatment. Are screenings like mammograms cost effective? Probably not for the number of cancers actually detected, but for the small number of women whose cancers are caught early because of mammograms the screening is lifesaving.


11 posted on 03/09/2010 7:25:47 PM PST by The Great RJ ("The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." M. Thatcher)
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To: hagendaz

It is a fabrication!
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/358/7/661


12 posted on 03/09/2010 7:29:12 PM PST by chris_bdba
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To: hagendaz
Your logic is backed up by data. The Congressional Budget Office did a study a few years to figure out whether aggressively managing chronic illnesses in the Medicare population would save money. What they figured out was that it would definitely help people live longer, preventing many deaths due to the consequences of chronic illness, primarily through heart disease.

In addition, however, they found that (1) chronic disease management is expensive, (2) since people live longer, they pile up additional Medicare costs, and (3) when they finally die, instead of dying quickly of a heart attack or pneumonia, they are much more likely to die of cancer, which is really expensive, often costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Although preventive care can help people live longer, it doesn't necessarily save money.

13 posted on 03/09/2010 7:32:26 PM PST by AZLiberty (Yes, Mr. Lennon, I do want a revolution.)
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To: AZLiberty

IMO it’s all in the genes!


14 posted on 03/09/2010 7:41:38 PM PST by Grams A (The Sun will rise in the East in the morning and God is still on his throne.)
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To: Grams A

They do not want to prevent disease, they want to prevent care.


15 posted on 03/09/2010 8:12:51 PM PST by Eleven Bravo 6 319thID
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To: hagendaz

Taking care of yourself (diet, exercise, hygiene, don’t smoke, don’t drink to excess, don’t drive recklessly, monogamy) are all the prevention that matter. All the advice your mom gave you for free. Other than vaccines “preventive care” is expensive BS.


16 posted on 03/09/2010 8:15:18 PM PST by The Good Doctor (Democracy is the only system where you can vote for a tax that you can avoid the obligation to pay.)
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To: hagendaz

Actually, most preventative care isn’t really helpful in reducing costs, even though it does increase lifespan.

One problem is that you get treated for things that would fix themselves in time.

Another is that the preventative care reduces the cost for a particular person who is discovered to be sick, but the savings don’t come close to covering the cost for all the preventative care that reveals nothing.

Another is that the false positives in preventative care lead to a lot of costly tests to rule out problems that otherwise would never have been thought to exist.


17 posted on 03/09/2010 8:23:36 PM PST by CharlesWayneCT
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To: hagendaz
You are mistaken to think that such an analysis can be properly grounded on logic instead of data.

In essence, the data tends to show that if patients do as advised, preventative care extends life and makes for a higher quality of life. Unfortunately, patients commonly fail to make the necessary lifestyle changes.

18 posted on 03/09/2010 9:11:12 PM PST by Rockingham
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To: hagendaz
The opinions you elicit will be predicated upon personal experience. Thus, you probably will not reach any legitimate conclusion.
19 posted on 03/10/2010 5:18:08 AM PST by verity (Obama Lies)
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