Monday, August 10, 2009

Preventive Care to Cost More, Not Less

Awww... I hate to rain on your "it will cost less" parade! This is just another example of what I have been saying for years, the government doesn't know how much any of their programs will cost and in an effort to get it passed they severely underestimate.

Now this from the CBO: "Although different types of preventive care have different effects on spending, the evidence suggests that for most preventive services, expanded utilization leads to higher, not lower, medical spending overall.

"That result may seem counterintuitive. For example, many observers point to cases in which a simple medical test, if given early enough, can reveal a condition that is treatable at a fraction of the cost of treating that same illness after it has progressed. In such cases, an ounce of prevention improves health and reduces spending—for that individual. But when analyzing the effects of preventive care on total spending for health care, it is important to recognize that doctors do not know beforehand which patients are going to develop costly illnesses. To avert one case of acute illness, it is usually necessary to provide preventive care to many patients, most of whom would not have suffered that illness anyway."

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