Health Homes and Prevention are Keys to Health Reform

By: Heather Pitre, WHF Health Reform Project Coordinator

The naysayers claim prevention looks and sounds better than it really is. They believe that investing in prevention costs too much, and won’t result in the kind of health reform we need.

Here at the Healthiest State in the Nation Campaign, we disagree. Health reform, without prevention, won’t reform health.  Investing in preventing obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and other chronic health conditions will result in cost savings and improved health for Americans. 

Creating Health Homes is another way we can work to reform the health system—putting people in charge of their own health, making sure they are connected to a primary care provider, and creating better access to medical records are all part of this process.  In Iowa, one medical clinic has reorganized to be a medical home for patients.  

Prevention is a key part of their efforts.  "Our system has gotten very good at paying for things to be done to patients, as opposed to keeping patients from having to have things done to them," said Dr. Ted Epperly, chair of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

And right here in Seattle, we have great examples of medical homes at Group Health and the new clinic at Swedish Ballard.  For more information on health homes, visit www.HealthiestState.org.  Together, we can reform health!

Comments

[Jeanne]

I think what the critics of prevention forgot to metion is the cost savings we see in terms of our economic engine. Preventing ill health and chronic disease improve our work force productivity and our quality of life. Couple these two important results of prevention with the decrease in spending on curative care and you have a counter to the arguement that prevention will increase the cost of health care.

[supplements]

Prevention is really better than cure. I think all of us should take prevention against ill-diseases. Finally, I must say Health is Wealth.