Changes

{{Cquote|A substantial proportion of poor health in populations is preventable. Previous work from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study suggests that nearly half of all health burden in the USA is attributable to a list of 84 modifiable risk factors. Globally, it is also generally accepted that a quarter, or perhaps up to half, of all deaths fall into the category of preventable deaths, making illness that can at least theoretically be avoided an accepted part of our health accounting.

{{Cquote|A substantial proportion of poor health in populations is preventable. Previous work from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study suggests that nearly half of all health burden in the USA is attributable to a list of 84 modifiable risk factors. Globally, it is also generally accepted that a quarter, or perhaps up to half, of all deaths fall into the category of preventable deaths, making illness that can at least theoretically be avoided an accepted part of our health accounting.

In The Lancet Public Health, Howard Bolnick and colleagues extend this logic in the US context and quantify the proportion of US health-care spending in 2016 that was due to preventable causes.3 They found that more than a quarter (27·0%, 95% uncertainty interval [UI] 25·7–28·4) of health-care spending was due to these preventable illnesses. The US health-care system is famously expensive: the USA spends 16·9% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health care, twice the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average of 8·8%.4 Therefore, in absolute terms, the sheer cost of these preventable illnesses is staggeringly high, estimated at US$730·4 billion (95% UI 694·6–768·5) in the USA alone in 2016. To put this figure into perspective, it is more than the 2019 GDP of 171 countries in the world, or all but the 19 richest countries.5 While this analysis is helpful to draw attention to the costs that the USA spends on diseases that it could avoid, it is also drawing attention to a status quo that we have long come to accept: a high proportion of illness and death is preventable, and a lot of money is spent on treatment because we do not do a particularly good job of preventing disease.<ref>[https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(20)30204-8/fulltext The cost of preventable disease in the USA] by Sandro Galea and Nason Maani, ''Lancet'', VOLUME 5, ISSUE 10, E513-E514, OCTOBER 01, 2020, DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30204-8</ref>}}

In The Lancet Public Health, Howard Bolnick and colleagues extend this logic in the US context and quantify the proportion of US health-care spending in 2016 that was due to preventable causes. They found that more than a quarter (27·0%, 95% uncertainty interval [UI] 25·7–28·4) of health-care spending was due to these preventable illnesses. The US health-care system is famously expensive: the USA spends 16·9% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health care, twice the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average of 8·8%. Therefore, in absolute terms, the sheer cost of these preventable illnesses is staggeringly high, estimated at US$730·4 billion (95% UI 694·6–768·5) in the USA alone in 2016. To put this figure into perspective, it is more than the 2019 GDP of 171 countries in the world, or all but the 19 richest countries. While this analysis is helpful to draw attention to the costs that the USA spends on diseases that it could avoid, it is also drawing attention to a status quo that we have long come to accept: a high proportion of illness and death is preventable, and a lot of money is spent on treatment because we do not do a particularly good job of preventing disease.<ref>[https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(20)30204-8/fulltext The cost of preventable disease in the USA] by Sandro Galea and Nason Maani, ''Lancet'', VOLUME 5, ISSUE 10, E513-E514, OCTOBER 01, 2020, DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30204-8</ref>}}

== History ==

== History ==