Healthy Populations Nurture Healthy People

Issues in S and T, Spring 2005, Healthy Populations Nurture Healthy People:
"Our difficulty in conceptualizing the achievements of avoided risks, as compared to the defeat of realized illnesses, is reflected in the pattern of expenditures devoted to health care in the United States. For example, it is estimated that roughly 95 percent of national health expenditures are devoted to direct care services and related research, leaving only 5 percent for population health activities. Although the magnitude of the direct care expenditures explains some of the remarkable successes of biomedical research and advances in clinical care, public health officials are quick to point out that roughly 70 percent of avoidable mortality in the United States results from behavioral, social, and environmental factors that are potentially modifiable through preventive health measures."