Monday, June 28, 2010

Preventing Health Problems Must be Dollar-Sensible

In an Aug.7, 2009 letter to Rep. Nathan Deal, Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf’s aide, said: "Researchers who have examined the effects of preventive care, generally find that the added costs of widespread use of preventive services tend to exceed the savings from averted illness."

"It is usually necessary to provide preventive care to many patients, most of whom would not have suffered that illness anyway." This costs money that would not have been spent.

We should always attempt to prevent illness. But prevention actually increases costs not reduces them. So, that spending must be cost-effective over the years.

The study, after all, comes directly from the respected Congressional Budget Office. And it refutes the Obama Administration’s claim for savings that will flow from its health care program.

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