Essay On Preventive Health Care

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The rising cost of healthcare is primarily due to people not utilizing preventive health care, modern medical technology, and the over- prescription of medical treatments. Due to these causes, there has been an exceedingly high amount of health care expenditures. Because of this, there has been an intensive need to help lower the high cost of American health care. One solution is to introduce low-cost preventive health care options in poor communities. A possible solution to alleviate the crippling costs of health care in America, is to establish low-cost preventive health care in clinics of impoverished areas. Families in low income areas can barely, or not afford curative health care, let alone preventive health care. Therefore, there …show more content…
In September 2008, The United Nations recognized chronic illness as a major health problem in low-income areas (Bristol 6). The issue is that chronic diseases, such as diabetes and cancer, can be preventible. Therefore, implementing affordable preventive health services in low income areas would be highly beneficial. In fact, in a study conducted by a research group it was found that “an investment of $10 per person per year in proven community-based disease-prevention programs could save more than $2.8 billion annually in health care costs in one to two years, more than $16 billion annually within five years and nearly $18 billion annually in 10 to 20 years” (Bristol 6). This proves that having preventive health care services in America can drastically reduce the rising costs by billions of dollars. Furthermore, the Robert Wood Foundation conducted a study on preventive health care in medical centers, and researchers concluded that services such as immunizations and disease screenings can not only help prevent illness, but help save money on medical spending (Bristol 6). This shows that there is a positive outcome for patients using preventive health care, and the resulting economic gain. Applying preventive healthcare can additionally help individuals avoid illness directly. According to the article “ Cost-effectiveness and economic benefits of vaccines in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic

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