A report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) found that, though many preventative services are cost-effective—offering good value for their cost—and help people lead longer and healthier lives, most do not result in cost savings.

From the report:

The potential for cost savings from prevention has particular policy relevance at this time. For the elderly, growing costs could threaten the long-term viability of Medicare. Spending on Medicare and Medicaid, which now represents 4.6 percent of GDP, is projected to increase to 5.9 percent by 2017, and to 20 percent by 2050 if present trends continue. For workers, employment-based insurance premiums increased 78 percent between 2001 and 2007, compared with a 17 percent increase in inflation and a 19 percent increase in worker wages over the same time period. During this period, the number of people who are either uninsured or underinsured has increased. The looming crisis in health care costs makes understanding the economic consequences of investments in prevention particularly important.  The interest in promoting preventive services has given rise to — and been inspired by — an increasing number of reports and academic papers that have evaluated the economics of prevention. This synthesis provides policy-makers with a framework for evaluating the cost-effectiveness literature and investigates the economic evidence for investing in preventive care.

Full report: The Cost Savings and Cost-Effectiveness of Clinical Preventive Care (PDF | 786.91 KB)

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (2009). The cost savings and cost-effectiveness of clinical preventive care. Cohen, J.T. and Neumann, P.J.