Failing to innovate prevention-based health care in 2010
January 4th, 2010We have high health care costs in this country because we have unhealthy people. We could reduce over 70%-80% of our health care costs if 30% of the people who drink, smoke, eat unhealthy would change their ways.Taken from an article at the Seattle Post:“70 percent of cancer, 71 percent of cardiovascular disease and 92 percent of adult-onset diabetes can be avoided if people change their behavior, said ClearPoint managing partner Kevin Overbey, citing journals of occupational medicine. A popular hypothesis states that if 30 percent of people improved their diets, simply moved about more and dealt better with stress, health care costs could be reduced 24 percent per year nationwide, he said.”Why is no one in Washington D.C. addressing prevention in the health care debate?Currently we are working with a client to bring prevention to large insurance companies here in the U.S. and in the U.K. so that they may offer it to their large employer groups as a way to reduce insurance costs. The premise is healthy employees are more productive and will cost the employer less in corporate insurance costs.Benefits of Workplace Health PromotionCompanies across the country have been instituting fitness and wellness programs since the 1970s and utilizing these programs as the vehicle to documents claims such as:
- The average stress-related worker¹s compensation claim costs employers $13,339.
- The average smoker costs a company $960 a year in insurance and time lost.
- The average overweight person costs a company $401 a year.
- Healthy employees have shown increases in productivity as high as 25%.
Study after study has shown that for every dollar a company spends on employee health, it reaps in excess of $6.00 through:
- Decreased absenteeism
- Reduced health care costs
- Increased productivity
- Improved employee health and morale
Research shows a high return on investment (ROI) for companies that implement self-care programs and preventive health screenings to help their employees make better decisions about their health.Source: http://www.healthyachievers.com/wellness-prevention/As a country, as a society, we have finally waken up to the fact that we must change our ways if we are going to make it. We’ve identified a viable solution to the problem. It has been tracked, measured and has quantifiable results. So, why is Congress not putting one line of legislation about prevention in its health bill?If health care reform passes in its current state, it is going to force insurance companies out of business and force the American people to get healthy or wait months in line to see the doctor. If you don’t believe me, just ask someone from England or Canada were this model has failed. Either way, corporations must begin looking at ways to add prevention into their corporate insurance programs to reduce costs and absenteeism and boost productivity.What does this have to do with brand development or design? As brand managers and marketers, we must be keen on industry and economic fluctuations to best serve our clients. Seeing first hand the dissonance and confusion of big insurance companies and wellness groups seeking to understand their next moves has been frustrating at best. The white space in this new emerging category is ripe for a well positioned company to capture.Regardless of your position on the health care debate, I believe preventive health care is going to be a major part of our lives moving forward. We’re going to see an increased interest of health and wellness in this country - and that might be a good thing.


I got wind of a protest taking place in Burlinton, New Hampshire, headquarters for Burton Snowboards this week. As a snowboarder it naturally piqued my curiosity. I read the