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Let's focus on the HEALTH in health care
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As Congress grapples with ways to improve America’s health care system, we need to encourage it to put more focus on the health part of health care. That means more resources allocated to preventive care and programs designed to keep Americans well. That’s a far cry from the sickcare system we have now.
It is hard in these tough economic times to sell the public on the need to spend money on people who are healthy. But we have to think long-term — short term spending for long-term benefits of less chronic illnesses that will plague these “healthy” Americans tomorrow. According to the CDC, chronic diseases are already the leading causes of death and disability in the United States.
The best way to reduce the incidence of chronic diseases is behavior change — more exercise, better nutrition, no smoking and moderate alcohol consumption. These changes take time, efforts and resources. Worth it? Well, the Partnership for Prevention reports that increasing use of just five preventive services would save more than 100,000 American lives annually. But prevention takes time, resources and a lot of commitment from the health care system and the public.
While we’re doing all of that, we also need to focus on changes we can make now. As I climb onto my virtual soapbox weekly, you will hear me say this over and over — prevention through vaccination is one of the simplest and safest ways to help make us a healthier nation. Immunization is a life-long project; vaccines are important from birth through senior citizenship.
The unparalleled record of success of vaccines (no other medical intervention has ever wiped a disease off the face of the planet) argues for their expanded use.
One way to increase uptake is to reduce financial barriers to our patients and our medical practices. Encouraging first dollar coverage of all the vaccines recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is a good first step toward this goal. Insurance companies like Aetna and Anthem were on board with this idea for H1N1 vaccines this season; hopefully they’ll see the light that vaccines are worth first dollar coverage even when a pandemic is not involved.