Maintaining preventative coverage is vital to public health

Improving the utilization of preventative care could be the key to saving more lives, money, and resources. With preventative care, physicians are able to monitor and diagnose conditions earlier, allowing for more effective treatment options earlier. This has been shown to reduce long term health care costs and burden on the healthcare system. However, one of the largest barriers to people obtaining this care is cost. With many insurance policies following the cost sharing model, which has its benefits, it was found that individuals were less likely to utilize necessary care to avoid costs. This was even more prevalent for fixed and lower income individuals. If their plan did not include free preventative care, many individuals were willing to forgo even the bare minimum. One solution to this is the utilization of first dollar coverage for all forms of preventative care. It is apparent to me that we need to find solutions to provide preventative care access and diagnoses at a free or affordable rate for individuals to utilize. Whether this is remotely, in person, or hybrid, this is an important service to focus on. 

the ACA provision that requires health insurance plans to cover preventive health services at no cost to patients, as recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. These services include cancer screenings, such as mammograms and colonoscopies, testing for hypertension and diabetes, flu shots and other vaccines, and regular well-baby and well-child visits, among others. 

What are the most important screenings and metrics needed for effective preventative care? Maybe this is something that is somewhat individualized. Or is this something that has a general screening for major risks and then secondary screenings based on possible risks from results? 

As our amicus brief points out, studies have shown conclusively that access to no-cost preventive services greatly increases the likelihood that patients will seek these services, allowing physicians to diagnose conditions earlier than they otherwise would. Overwhelming evidence also indicates that when illnesses and disease are detected early on, chances are much greater that those conditions can be successfully treated. 

Where are sources where funding could come for services or medical devices like this?

In short, access to affordable preventive health care is fundamental to improving health outcomes. Preventive services also cut long-term health care costs, and reduce the overall burden placed on our health care system, by narrowing the scope and invasiveness of treatment plans and lowering the total cost of treating serious illnesses over the course of patients’ lives.  

Better diagnoses leads to more accurate treatments that avoid unnecessary costs and interventions 

shifting even a small portion of the cost onto patients—as little as $1 to $5—causes fewer of them to utilize  necessary care. Those on fixed incomes and lower-income individuals are among those at highest risk of foregoing care they need, including preventive care, if zero-cost screenings and testing are made unavailable.  

We need to especially focus on those that need the help the most, how do we make these services affordable and accessible? What ways could money, services, and technology be allocated better in order to help them?

Reference

Scott, B. A. (2025, April 17). Maintaining preventive coverage is vital to public health. American Medical Association. https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/maintaining-preventive-coverage-vital-public-health

No generative AI was used in the writing of this post