We’ve been talking about the community discussions on health care and discussing the top concerns related to our health care and health insurance system. We’ve already talked about the cost and availability of quality health care and affordable health insurance. Today we would like to discuss prevention – according to many discussion participants, preventive care is not given the attention it deserves.

Several groups across the country felt that our current health care system does not focus on “health” – sounds strange, right? Well, think about it this way… a woman in Apple Valley, California described the issues this way: “The ‘Health Care System’ has more focus on being sick than healthy. It’s really a ‘Sick Care System.’” And she wasn’t alone in her feelings – groups all across the nation feel that preventive care should be more emphasized and more available to patients. So why isn’t it?

The origin of the problem seems to lie in three major areas: cost, availability, and awareness. The cost of health care has grown so rapidly over the last several years that many people tend to avoid visiting the doctor unless they absolutely need to – and this is especially true for the uninsured. There are very few resources available for uninsured patients that need health care, which is why so many people end up in the emergency room. If these patients had been able to find (and afford) preventive health care services, their health problems probably would not have escalated, which means they would have never needed the services of the emergency room. Similarly, even insured patients find it difficult to get the preventive services they require – but this is usually due to awareness. Many people don’t even know what type of preventive care they should be seeking, or which check-ups they should be having regularly. Many community discussion groups thought that better education on health care was a necessary step towards health care reform.

Not only would it help to improve the overall health of our nation, but many groups felt as though it would also save us money. Preventive health services are much cheaper than treatments for advanced illnesses or health problems. Logically, it makes sense: if we are able to keep people out of the hospitals for serious health problems, emergency room costs and the cost of a visit to the hospital should regulate. However, the true cost savings could never be estimated unless preventive care became more prominent. In fact, there are some people who feel that preventive care would not save any money at all. For example, a group or participants in San Fernando Valley, California expressed the concern that “If we control diabetes, cholesterol, and blood pressure, people will live much longer and develop more serious diseases such as cancer and chronic lung disease. They will need more expensive medications and heart surgery, etc.”

But regardless of how you feel about preventive health care services, everyone agrees that learning how to live a healthy lifestyle is the key to prevention, and the key to avoiding expensive visits to the doctor or hospital. The good news is that our nation is actually embracing the idea – and has been for the last year or two. Several companies are providing incentives for their employees to get healthier, and schools are starting to educate children about healthy habits. But we still have a long way to go. A group in Littleton, Colorado put it quite simply: “There is no incentive to be healthy in our current system. People who are fat (1 out of 3 Americans) and smoke pay the same as those who make an effort to get preventive care, exercise, and lead a healthy lifestyle.”

For more information on American’s greatest health care concerns, see the Report on Health Care Community Discussions. Tomorrow we will be discussing the quality of health care services. What do you think – does our current health care system provide quality health care?