Greater Use Of Preventive Services In U.S. Health Care Could Save Lives At Little Or No Cost

There is broad debate over whether preventive health services save money or represent a good investment. This paper analyzes the estimated cost of adopting a package of twenty proven preventive services--including tobacco cessation screening, alcohol abuse screening, and daily aspirin use--against t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health Affairs Vol. 29; no. 9; pp. 1656 - 1660
Main Authors: Maciosek, Michael V., Coffield, Ashley B., Flottemesch, Thomas J., Edwards, Nichol M., Solberg, Leif I.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States The People to People Health Foundation, Inc., Project HOPE 01.09.2010
Subjects:
Alcohol abuse
Aspirin
Cost
Cost analysis
Cost control
Cost estimates
Cost reduction
Cost Savings - statistics & numerical data
Cost Savings - trends
Counseling
Disease prevention
Efficiency, Organizational
Evidence-Based Medicine
Health care
Health care expenditures
Health care policy
Health policy
Health services
Humans
Immunization
Medical screening
Medical service
Models, Organizational
Money
Mortality, Premature
Personal health
Policy making
Preventive Health Services - economics
Preventive Health Services - utilization
Preventive medicine
Quality Assurance, Health Care - standards
Savings
Smoking cessation
Studies
Task forces
Tobacco
United States
United States
United States > US
ISSN:0278-2715, 2694-233X, 1544-5208, 2694-233X
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:There is broad debate over whether preventive health services save money or represent a good investment. This paper analyzes the estimated cost of adopting a package of twenty proven preventive services--including tobacco cessation screening, alcohol abuse screening, and daily aspirin use--against the estimated savings that could be generated. We find that greater use of proven clinical preventive services in the United States could avert the loss of more than two million life-years annually. What's more, increasing the use of these services from current levels to 90 percent in 2006 would result in total savings of $3.7 billion, or 0.2 percent of U.S. personal health care spending. These findings suggest that policy makers should pursue options that move the nation toward greater use of proven preventive services.
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ISSN:0278-2715
2694-233X
1544-5208
2694-233X
DOI:10.1377/hlthaff.2008.0701