“Prevention is better than cure.” Out of the country’s health budget, a large proportion should be delivered from treatment to spending on health education and preventative measures. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?
“Prevention is better than cure” is a well-known proverb that emphasizes the importance of taking proactive measures to avoid illness before it occurs. Prevention involves adopting healthy behaviors, getting regular check-ups, and immunizations to avoid illness.
Prevention is far better than cure because it not only improves the overall health index of a country but also reduces the cost of advanced and expensive treatments. Also, it would reduce the potential risk of many chronic and degenerative disorders.
To begin with, investing in healthcare education and preventive measures is way better than outlaying money on health treatment. Here are a few examples of countries that invest more in health education and prevention. First, Norway invests in public health initiatives, health promotion campaigns, and screenings to detect diseases early.
Sweden also invests in health education programs, disease prevention, and community-based interventions to promote healthier lifestyles. Similar is the case for the Netherlands, Australia, Singapore, Canada, New Zealand, Denmark, and many other countries. All these countries prioritize investment in public health education and preventive measures besides treatment.
The countries that invest more in the healthcare sector including health awareness, disease surveillance, and prevention programs show better life expectancy, good community health, and improved ranking of the health indices. For instance, in 2023, Singapore ranked first with a health index score of 86.9, followed by Japan and South Korea.
Primary healthcare at Singapore’s government hospitals is heavily subsidized and sometimes even free for Singaporean citizens and permanent residents. Also, Singapore’s people can avail several health schemes like Medishield, and Medisave that help with healthcare finances. Overall Singapore’s world-class health system is performing very well by many measures including per-capita costs and health outcomes.
Nevertheless, it is crucial to shift the health budget from treatment to health awareness campaigns. One pertinent example is the pandemic of COVID-19 that devastated public health and jolted the whole planet because of the severity of its infection.
According to data available from World Health Organization, about 6,951,677 people died of COVID-19 infection worldwide as of July 19, 2023. If vigorous vaccination and coronavirus prevention awareness campaigns were not implemented then the disease would have inflicted much more damage to the health, life, and economy of the world.
Besides, investment in public health, health screenings, and promoting healthy lifestyles can save the high cost of treatment of advanced diseases. It reduces the risk of infection and many other chronic diseases as well.
Moreover, prevention involves taking measures to reduce pollution, conserve resources, and reduce ecological damage. It also involves road safety measures for averting accidents, crime, and other incidents. By investing in health preparedness and health awareness many problems can be tackled at the root level.
Conclusively, prevention is far better than cure. For this, governments can motivate people towards healthy lifestyles by opening recreational places, Jims, and parks, and by running community-based campaigns against alcohol and drug abuse.
Rehabilitation centers must be in place to help the already addicted populations so as to avoid further proliferation. Also, health counseling of the general public, and increased percentile of GDP allocation for health is something irrefutable if a country is seriously concerned about the maintaining good health of its public.
