The U.S. is famous for spending vast sums on treating sick people but virtually nothing on preventing disease up front. Europeans, by contrast, weigh prevention and public health more seriously.
Now a Harris Poll shows that two out of three Americans would support funding for disease prevention and health promotion as a higher priority than funding for disease treatment! In addition, large majorities (especially among the affluent and the better educated) believe that most public health activities are “extremely important,” including:
• by 91%: preventing spread of infectious disease (TB, flu, AIDS)
• by 88%: research into the causes and prevention of diseases
• by 68%: encouraging healthy lifestyles, diet, and nonsmoking.
Given what this study shows, why is it that we so neglect disease prevention? Experts conclude it is because spending for treatment is “highly emotional,” while prevention spending is “more intellectual, more rational.” In short, emotions win over rationality. Public health “is under-funded because it is less glamorous than miracle drugs and high-tech surgery.”
HIV/AIDS is a dramatic example. Spending for HIV prevention is so low and the cost of treatment is so high that just preventing 1,255 infections annually would save enough money to pay for the all prevention costs combined. The suffering avoided would, of course, be without price.
As long as this divergence continues, we will continue to be forced to pay for massive levels of often-preventable disease.
For details, see the Kaiser Family Foundation Web site at http://www.KFF.org.
This article appears in November 5 • 1999.