What drivers impact health care costs?
There are several known factors that contribute to rising health care costs, including the increasing prevalence of preventable chronic diseases in the population, the clinical thresholds for the diagnosis of many chronic diseases are lower, the fact that every year medical science introduces new but costly medical technologies and specialty medications, and that our population is aging. Unfortunately, some of the increases in costs are due to the fact that the health system has not been able to totally eliminate errors or waste. Can preventive measures be effective in bringing down costs? Preventive measures that reduce or eliminate lifestyle risks such as smoking, obesity and poor physical activity alone are unlikely to affect many of the factors that drive up costs directly in the short term. But there are several direct as well as indirect health care costs that can be reduced by addressing these lifestyle risks and these should be of major importance to employers. These indirect c
