How to Save America $16 Billion and Spare Millions from Disease

We know we're in an economic crisis. But at a time like this, when the housing market and gas prices dominate headlines, we can't forget one of our biggest long term economic concerns: the incredible amount the US spends on health care. We spend $2 trillion a year on health care (more than any other country) while staggering amounts of serious diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease just keep getting worse. Take a good look at our risk factors, and you'll see why: two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, one in five Americans does not engage in any physical activity, and one in five adults smoke. How do we expect to compete in the global economy if our workforce isn't healthy enough to be competitive?

The good news is, many of these diseases are very preventable, and if we'd just make some small changes in our behavior, we could make some serious progress.

Last week, a non-profit called Trust for America's Health (which I head) connected the dots and released the hard math, showing just how much we could save by simply preventing disease, instead of getting sick and stuck with the tab. We found that if we invested just $10 per person in common-sense public health initiatives, we could save a whopping $16 billion annually within just 5 years. Our findings are outlined in a report we released last week called Prevention for a Healthier America .

Our researchers found that many effective community-level prevention programs can help Americans become more physically active, eat more nutritiously, and stop smoking - and these programs often cost less than $10 per person and lower rates of diseases without using any medical care. The evidence shows that implementing these programs in communities would reduce rates of type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure by 5 percent within 2 years; reduce heart disease, kidney disease, and stroke by 5 percent within 5 years; and reduce some forms of cancer, arthritis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by 2.5 percent within 10 to 20 years.

It's not exactly rocket science. These programs simply break a cycle of costly health conditions like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, with initiatives that make it easier for people to make healthier choices. They promote physical activity by creating more walking trails. They promote diets full of fresh fruits and vegetables with farmers markets and accessible supermarkets for city dwellers. They keep supervised playgrounds open later, and place healthier snacks in school vending machines. Every one of these initiatives happens without clinical care or pharmaceuticals.

Sen. Tom Harkin laid it out very simply last Thursday, when the report was released. He said, "Instead of continuing to spend hundreds of billions on unnecessary disease and disability, let's move more of our health-care dollars upstream. Instead of spending only three percent on wellness and prevention, how about spending five percent, 10 percent, or 15 percent?"

We can achieve aggressive health reform amidst the one of the biggest economic downturns we've ever had, with a straight face and a mind to solve both problems. Fresh solutions lie right in our own backyard -- all we need to do is give them a chance to work.

Comments

[mosaic12]

Unfortunately, many of the groups who need more preventive health care are unable to afford it. Minorities are often more than twice as likely to get diabetes than whites, according to a piece I read on mixedracefamliies.com a few weeks ago - Diabetes is among the top five leading causes of death in every minority group, but is not among the top five in the white population. Often, the minority groups are the ones who are struggling to pay for healthcare. We have a "sick care" system in the U.S. and not a "health care" system.

[NedFlanders19]

The problem with your article is that it makes sense.

Corporations will balk at it because illness and drugs is big business. They can't have a nation of healthy people since that would cut into the bottom line.

The priorities in this country are so misplaced that for some time profits are more important than people. Native Americans have a beautiful tradition of making choices by looking at the effect their choices will have for the next 7 generations. Our so called leaders also have a tradition of looking at the effect their choices will have over the next 7 days. Our collective greed and arrogance will be our downfall.

"It would be easier to pay off our national debt overnight than to neutralize the long range effects of our national stupidity."
Frank Zappa

[Cathexis]

Tsk, don't you know that ALL responsibilities belong to individuals and that Corporations deserve all profit, in order to remain "competitive?" (/snark)

[dcdanny]

We should support prevention programs even if they didn't save money in the long run. The fact that these programs pay for themselves and more make it a complete no brainer!

[jamesinraro]

Supplements can play a major part in compensating for life style issues which lead to a high rate of cancer and heart disease amongst Americans. In November Harvard Medical School published consecutive papers in the journals Cell and Nature showing that biotivia Transmax, a commercially available extract of the resveratrol compound found in red wine, could reduce the incidence of diabetes, cataracts and several types of cancer as well as increase stamina two fold and extend the lifespan of mice by 31%. No other compound has been able to do this. Resveratrol also prevented the normal diseases of aging in these mice. The extract used in lab studies of resveratrol, biotivia transmax, allows scientist to obtain an equivalent dose of resveratrol equal to 200 bottles of red wine. Now, scientists at Sirtris Pharmacuetical are trying to develop SIRT1 activating molecules that mimic the effect of bioforte resveratrol extract. University medical schools are frantically studying resveratrol in an attempt to understand how it can be so effective against so many different cancer types. Supplements are no just vitamins any longer. The better companies employ scientists and pharmacists to design formulations that are far more potent and effective than they were a few years ago.

[AZBunny]

Thank you for the information. I just ordered some.

[BADEN]

First big cycle to break: Carbonated beverages with corn syrup.
Next cycle: Overly salted baked goods and processed foods.

That would go a LONG way in this not even starting.

NEXT: leaching of chemicals from plastic containers into our bodies and ultimately into our very water sources, and then recycled back into our famiy's bodies.

Preventive maintenance.
And the will to say 'no' as needed.

[AZBunny]

When you read the labels on food, it's pretty scary what it's in. Long ago I decided that I wouldn't eat anything if I didn't know exactly what it is. I also avoid processed foods, artifical colors, flavors and preseratives.