An Ounce of Prevention

I look at prevention through an economic lens and make three main points. First, those advocating preventive measures are often asked how much money a given measure saves. This question is misguided. Rather, preventive measures can be thought of as insurance, with a certain cost in the present that may or may not pay off in the future. In fact, although most medical preventive measures improve expected health, they do not save money. Various lifestyle and early childhood interventions, however, may both save money and improve health. Second, preventive measures, including medical and life style measures, are heterogeneous in their value, both across measures and within measure, across individuals. As a result, generalizations in everyday discourse about the value of prevention can be overly broad. Third, health insurance coverage for medical preventive measures should generally be more extensive than coverage for the treatment of a medical condition, though full coverage of preventive services is not necessarily optimal.

Download Full-text

Intermittent Lack of Health Insurance Coverage and Use of Preventive Services

American Journal of Public Health ◽

10.2105/ajph.93.1.130 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 93 (1) ◽

pp. 130-137 ◽

Cited By ~ 100

Author(s):

Joseph J. Sudano ◽

David W. Baker

Keyword(s):

Health Insurance ◽

Insurance Coverage ◽

Preventive Services ◽

Health Insurance Coverage

Download Full-text

The association between health insurance coverage disruptions and access to care and affordability among cancer survivors in the United States.

Journal of Clinical Oncology ◽

10.1200/jco.2019.37.27_suppl.121 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 37 (27_suppl) ◽

pp. 121-121

Author(s):

Jingxuan Zhao ◽

Xuesong Han ◽

Leticia Maciel Nogueira ◽

Ahmedin Jemal ◽

K Robin Yabroff

Keyword(s):

Health Insurance ◽

Cancer Survivors ◽

Access To Care ◽

Insurance Coverage ◽

Preventive Services ◽

Health Insurance Coverage ◽

The United States ◽

Current Health ◽

The Past ◽

Services Use

121 Background: Having health insurance is a strong predictor of access to care and affordability. To date, most studies evaluating the effects of insurance coverage measured it only at a single time point. Little is known about the effects of coverage disruptions. This study aims to assess associations of a health insurance coverage disruption with access and affordability among cancer survivors in the United States. Methods: We identified 6476 cancer survivors aged 18-64 years with current health insurance coverage from the 2011-2017 National Health Interview Survey. Coverage disruption was measured by the question “In the past 12 months, was there any time when you did not have any health insurance or coverage?”. Access to care and affordability was measured by: 1) preventive services use (e.g. blood pressure check); and 2) forgoing care because of cost, respectively, in the past 12 months. We used separate multivariable logistic models to evaluate the associations between a coverage disruption and healthcare access and affordability, by current health insurance coverage. Results: Among survivors with current health insurance coverage, 3.7% of those with private and 8.1% with public insurance reported a coverage disruption in the past 12 months. Among survivors with current private coverage, those with a recent coverage disruption reported lower likelihood of any preventive services use (OR = 0.1, 95% CI: 0.1-0.3) and higher likelihood of forgoing any care because of cost (OR = 6.0, 95% CI: 3.9-9.5) compared to those with continuous private coverage. Among survivors with current public coverage, those with a recent coverage disruption reported lower likelihood of any preventive services use (OR = 0.4, 95% CI: 0.2-0.9) and higher likelihood of forgoing any care because of cost (OR = 4.3, 95% CI: 2.5-7.3) compared to those with continuous public coverage. Conclusions: Currently insured cancer survivors with a recent health insurance coverage disruption were more likely to report problems in access to care and affordability compared to the continuously insured. Improving private and public insurance coverage continuity may be effective in addressing these problems.

Download Full-text