Americans constantly search for the fountain of youth or the next miracle cure, a way, as Bob Dylan sang to “stay forever young.” We all want to live longer, healthier lives, but too many Americans are not getting the preventive services that would help them do so. The problem is even more acute among racial and ethnic minorities.
Preventive care, including smoking cessation, immunizations and disease screenings, are smart investments we can make in our health. Unfortunately, our outmoded health care system is designed to treat illnesses rather than prevent them.
In my years of private practice, as the state’s former health commissioner and now in my role as chair of the National Commission on Prevention Priorities, I’ve seen how little we’re doing to prevent disease. It’s time we changed our health care focus by making necessary cultural, environmental, economic and policy changes to shift the focus of our health care system.
I was honored to lead a distinguished panel of experts as we examined our health care system and identified the health benefits associated with the improved use of preventive services.
Our study, “Preventive Care: A National Profile on Use, Disparities and Health Benefits,” found that although hugely beneficial, preventive care is widely underutilized, resulting in millions of lives shortened, unnecessary illness, decreased productivity and costly medical care.
According to the Partnership for Prevention, 95 cents of every health care dollar goes toward treating disease, rather than preventing it. It’s time we invest in and better utilize preventive care.
Among the most cost effective of these preventive care measures is smoking cessation, which is also the least utilized. Tobacco use is the leading underlying cause of death in the United States—with smoking accounting for roughly one in five of all U.S. deaths annually.
Unfortunately, our study found that only 28 percent of smokers are advised by a health professional to quit and are offered the medicine and counseling assistance they need to quit successfully. Compounding the problem, most health insurance plans don’t cover smoking cessation as a standard benefit, denying millions of people access to a truly life-saving preventive service.
The number of patients who access other key preventive care services also falls short, so much so that closing these gaps in the use of just five preventive services would save 100,000 lives in the United States each year. In addition to smoking cessation, it’s time we increased access to and utilization of aspirin therapy, colorectal cancer screenings, influenza immunizations and breast cancer screenings.
As flu season approaches consider the 12,000 additional lives that would be saved each year, if we increased the percent of adults who get an annual flu vaccine from the current 37 percent to 90 percent. Another 45,000 lives could be saved each year, if patients were properly advised and medically directed to take aspirin therapy to prevent heart disease.
And, 14,000 additional lives would be saved annually if we increased to 90 percent the portion of adults age 50 and older who are up-to-date with colorectal cancer screening. Today, less than 50 percent of adults are up-to-date with screening.
Health disparities are an unfortunate reality. Hispanic Americans have lower utilization rates compared to non-Hispanic whites and African Americans for 10 of the 11 preventive care services analyzed in our study. Although their screening rates are higher than those of Hispanics, African Americans would benefit the most from increasing screening for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer because they have a higher mortality from cancer compared to other racial and ethnic groups.
As voters and presidential candidates discuss the health care crisis, we would be wise to place preventive care at the center of that debate. Preventive care is the booster shot our health care system needs. It offers the promise of saving an estimated 100,000 lives a year—and maybe your own.
+ + + Dr. Eduardo Sanchez is chair of the National Commission on Prevention Priorities and director of the Institute for Health Policy at The University of Texas School of Public Health. He is also the immediate past commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services.
“Preventive Care: A National Profile on Use, Disparities and Health Benefits” is a study by the National Commission on Prevention Priorities and was released in August by the Partnership for Prevention (www.prevent.org). Dr. Sanchez chairs the National Commission on Prevention Priorities. |