Many people spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars to prevent themselves from getting diseases. For example, a lot of people take part in weight loss regimens in order to decrease their risk of getting diabetes. According to Yahoo News, however, research shows that only 1/7 people actually benefit from these programs. Most people do not lose weight or end up diagnosed with diabetes, despite their efforts.
Yahoo News also reports that there are very few prevention programs which actually save the healthcare system money overall. Even though it is often assumed by the President, Congress, and others that preventing diseases will help save the healthcare industry money in the long run, it really is not always the case.
Some of the different methods of disease prevention actually end up costing more than the treatment required for the disease. What this means is that a weight loss program to prevent diabetes is likely to cost more than insulin shots and other forms of medication that are used to control this condition.
Of course, it is important to keep in mind that this does not apply to all of the different methods of disease prevention out there. There are many important prevention programs which are actually known to be quite effective and will save the healthcare industry lots of money in the long run. Taking Aspirin on a daily basis to reduce the risk of heart disease, flu vaccines, vaccines for children, Pap smears, and screening for colon cancer are all known ways to prevent diseases. Continuing all of these programs would be in the best interest of the healthcare industry since they are known to work so effectively.
As for the expensive cost of programs like those to prevent diabetes? According to Dr. Ronald Ackermann at Indian University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, there are recent studies which suggest that offering such programs to groups of ten people, instead of providing one-on-one training, would reduce the cost (Yahoo News). In fact, it may be less than $20 a month for this type of program, as opposed to the $75 that many are spending. This costs less and may actually be more effective, as people will have the opportunity to receive support from a group of people rather than just from a trainer that they work with one-on-one.
There is no doubt that there are many disease prevention programs which are beneficial. Some are not as beneficial as we may believe them to be, however. Before paying for certain prevention programs, health insurance should consider how effective the specific program actually is. If there is a strong possibility that the disease will be prevented, it may be worth it. If there is a good chance that the prevention program will not work, they may be able to save money by not paying for the program.
this is a nice post
Comment by rocky — July 1, 2009 @ 10:20 pm