Central to achieving Village Health’s goal of a healthy community is the importance of prevention. There are two main participants in the prevention effort — the doctor, who maintains a sensible level of surveillance such as routine physicals and testing and, more importantly, the patient, whose lifestyle choices hold the key.
In these tough economic times and with health insurance costs spiraling ever upward, it’s never been more important to get this message out to patients – many of whom literally can’t afford to be sick or injured. Fortunately, preventive measures taken by the patient don’t cost much – and in the case of bad habits like smoking and drinking – they can actually save sizable sums of money each year. Naturally, this money can help offset the expenses of health insurance premiums and high deductibles.
It’s very simple really. Healthy living habits and regular health maintenance are the keys to avoiding the illnesses and injuries that rob you of your health and quality of life.
Preventable illness and injury account for over 80% of all health care expenses in the United States today[See ABC News article “Preventable illness at the core of U.S. healthcare costs” http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Diet/story?id=3683683&page=1#.T1kt1K7p6eY]
Chronic disease has been called the Public Health Challenge of the 21st Century. At least 7 out of 10 deaths among Americans each year are from chronic disease. [See The Power of Prevention from the CDC, http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/pdf/2009-Power-of-Prevention.pdf] Conditions like hypertension, heart and lung disease, cancers, stroke, adult-onset diabetes, and arthritis afflict 1 in 2 adults and cause untold hardship, death and disability, not to mention recurrent utilization of the health care system.
Among the primary causes of the above illnesses are
