Earth to Pelosi: Are you not listening, or do you really not get it?

The Heritage Foundation points out that in the Pelosi-Hoyer condemnation of health care opponents today, they write:

“People must be allowed to learn the facts. … Reform will also mean higher-quality care by promoting preventive care so health problems can be addressed before they become crises. This, too, will save money.”

For being so concerned with getting facts out, it seems surprising that they either missed or ignored CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf’s statement last week that refuted this position.
Elemendorf wrote:

“Although different types of preventive care have different effects on spending, the evidence suggests that for most preventive services, expanded utilization leads to higher, not lower, medical spending overall.

That result may seem counterintuitive.To avert one case of acute illness, it is usually necessary to provide preventive care to many patients, most of whom would not have suffered that illness anyway. … Researchers who have examined the effects of preventive care generally find that the added costs of widespread use of preventive services tend to exceed the savings from averted illness.”

This is not to say that preventive care shouldn’t continue to be a priority. It should. Preventive care is indeed a priority, as Ed Morrissey points out at AIP, this is why almost all health care plans cover annual preventive visits at 100% (even those high deductible insurance accounts in my experience). This also includes blood work and diagnostic testing, aimed at catching problems early if you do visit the doctor annually so that problems can be, that’s right prevented.

Tags: health care debate, health care reform, preventive care