Health experts urge return of prevention and wellness funding to stimulus

IDSA [Infectious Diseases Society of America] and HIVMA [HIV Medicine Association] are surprised and disappointed that the Senate removed one of the most cost-effective provisions—the Prevention and Wellness Fund—from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to be voted on today. This $5.8 billion provision—less than one-tenth of one percent of the total stimulus package—would have invested in immunizations, health promotion, HIV/AIDS prevention, and other programs now that would have averted much larger health expenditures later. IDSA applauds the House of Representatives for including $3 billion in public health funding in its version of the bill, and the Society urges Congress to incorporate this important provision in the final stimulus bill.

“No member of Congress needs to be reminded about the precarious state of the nation’s health care system. The problems are only getting worse as more Americans lose their jobs and struggle through the recession. The investments contained in the Senate’s Prevention and Wellness Fund would have generated cost savings, both for the individuals who benefit from these prevention programs and for the federal government, which pays the health care bills for the nation’s neediest—a population that is growing as the economy worsens. A study by the Trust for America’s Health shows every dollar spent on prevention saves $5.60 over five years.”

Read more in EurekAlert!, February 10, 2009.

Comment: This absurd decision could be reversed, and hopefully will be. It is absurd for several reasons, including:

1. Prevention is excellent economic stimulus, because most of it goes to relatively low-paid workers who will spend it quickly on goods and services they need to live. It directly creates many jobs.

2. The U.S. gets a “twofer” (two benefits, not just one), because prevention actually saves several times as much money by reducing disease, as noted above. This savings is long-term — but that’s when it counts, for reducing the taxpayer debt resulting from the stimulus.

3. Health and education are now widely recognized as among the most important ways to help a society develop and prosper in the future.

4. Despite the merits, the decision may go the wrong way because it is hard to mobilize a major political constituency for prevention — simply because those who are currently well but are going to be sick do not realize that prevention concerns them. Also, many conservatives don’t like prevention, because it can benefit people whose sexual or other behavior they don’t approve of. And many Democrats are trying to be nonpartisan. So prevention can be an easy political sacrifice, to the lasting harm of the whole country.