Preventive care is the best medicine

Hey, lookie, it is a new attack on you, your kids and your wallet/pocketbook.

"Some of our nation's largest health-care spending problems can be addressed by the most fundamental of solutions. Take, for example, the linkage between the future of America's economy and an inexpensive blood test."

Wouldn't that be nice?

Too bad it is a lie. At least this person's approach is.

"The director of the Congressional Budget Office, Peter Orszag, says rising health-care costs pose a fundamental risk to our economic future. He noted accurately that Medicare and Medicaid, if they continue growing at their current rate, are on a path to exceed 20 percent of the gross domestic product...

One of our most serious chronic health conditions is obesity. More than half of the adult Utah population, 57 percent, is considered overweight or obese. An estimated 22.5 percent of Utah elementary school students are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight.

Obese adults suffer disproportionately from heart disease and diabetes, among other diseases. In fact, a 2004 Utah Health Status Survey found that about one in 25 Utahns had been diagnosed with diabetes. Also growing is the rate at which children are developing Type 2 diabetes, once considered exclusively an adult disease.

The American Diabetes Association estimates that almost half of all new childhood diabetes cases are classified as Type 2. A likely cause of this increase is obesity.

Diabetes is a very costly disease, in both human and economic terms. It causes blindness, kidney failure, stroke and, all too often, premature death. Nationally the total cost of diabetes is over $130 billion each year."

So?

"This brings us to the importance of that inexpensive blood test.

A hemoglobin A1c blood test costs about $13. It measures a patient's blood sugar control over time. The test serves as an early warning system for the potential onset of diabetes complications, enabling preventive steps that can avert years of misery."

So?

"Having that test done can reduce the likelihood of a heart attack (which costs roughly $28,000 to treat), amputation ($27,000) and peripheral artery disease (about $6,000 annually per patient), by making the patient and their physician aware of the need for better blood sugar control."

Lie!

Having the test done will do nothing.

It is losing the weight that will have an effect.

This selfish (you will soon see) moron wants to sell you a blood test as a preventive means when all it can do is show that one has developed a likely consequence of being fat.

"The clear conclusion here is that our public health programs, and the people they serve, are healthier in both the short and long term if we place an emphasis on the preventive tests and treatments that can help avoid serious adverse effects and chronic illness."

There is no "preventive test" here. And this person knows it.

The only "clear conclusion" here is the absence of integrity on the part of the author and newspaper.

Who is this deceptive person, IMHO?

"For more information on how laboratory tests lead to better health and improved outcomes visit labresultsforlife.org.
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* RONALD WEISS is president and COO of ARUP Laboratories and chair of American Clinical Laboratory Association."

Someone standing to make money from needless testing.

And The Salt Lake Tribune should have known better than to "advertise" for this person's organization.