The
Better Health, Lower Cost document (BHLC) is a summary that outlines the research and potential cost savings that could be attained through fully engaged integrative approaches to common health issues and wellness objectives that are important to the American public and the health care community.
Among the 17 topics included are these:
- Omega-3 Fatty Acids: When used to offset and prevent coronary heart disease (CHD), an estimated $1.1 billion could be saved annually in hospital and physician charges.
- Worksite Health Promotion: Statistics show employer health programs can return from $2.30 to $10.10 for every dollar the employer spends on wellness care.
- Intensive Lifestyle Treatment: If 25% of patients dealing with Type II Diabetes, Prostate and Breast Cancers, Coronary Artery Disease and Metabolic Syndrome were treated by intensive lifestyle adjustments, the care system could recover $230 billion in five years.
- Military Resilience Training: Programs now being implemented by the military health systems have the potential to reduce the overall costs of managing service-originated disability and chronic illness from $400,000 to around $20,000 per member.
- Early Health Habits: Many health professionals and researchers believe that the greatest potential for achieving true national wellness and healing transformation lies in making positive experiences and appropriate education available to children. Instilling the habits of maintaining healthy weight combined with not smoking would save up to $100 billion in treatment costs and add up to $500 billion to GDP in the next 15 years.
The aggregated savings described in these examples are staggering and represent a projection of the long-term potential state of health and wellness in the United States. But these projections are far more than just aspirational, because they are based on recent demonstrable research, real-world clinical experience and patient outcomes. The Better Health, Lower Cost examples anticipate a future that is not only articulated in Samueli Institute’s Strategic Plan for 2011-2016, but has been the driving vision for the Institute since its founding in 2001 and the animating force behind its foundational research in healing and wellness.
The examples are clearly and simply presented, with a page for each health issue explained with graphics, charts and source citations of the research and publications that define our current knowledge about the topic.
To download the BHLC document
click here.