The health benefits of prevention are intuitive—it is wiser to prevent a disease than to face its consequences at a more advanced stage—but for many years policymakers, politicians, and professionals have also advanced the economic argument that prevention saves money. Enthusiasm for prevention has become prominent in health care reform discussions in Congress and was a theme during the 2008 presidential election. Prevention is seen as the touchstone of a redesigned system focused on improving health outcomes. 7 Prevention advocates have emphasized that it will save money, arguing that prevention is not only good for health but also.
