Member Resources / Preventive Health & Wellness
Preventive Health & Wellness
Preventive care is health care that helps prevent disease, injury, or illness, rather than treating a condition that is already becoming serious or acute. The point of preventive care is to help people stay healthy.
Preventive care can include:
- Doctor visits, such as annual physicals, well-child visits, annual gynecological care, and dental cleanings
- Immunizations (adult and children)
- Allergy medications
- Insulin (diabetes)
- Colonoscopies and mammograms (cancer screenings)
- Screenings, such as tests for skin cancer, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol
Preventive care also keeps people active and able to conduct their daily lives, enabling them to work, play, and enjoy their senior years. It is estimated that 35% of retirees were forced into early retirement before they were financially ready due to health conditions.
Access to affordable preventive care can help lower these numbers.
Why does preventive care matter?
Preventive care helps lower health care costs and premiums for individuals by preventing or treating diseases before they require emergency room or inpatient hospital care.
Hospital care is very expensive, making up one-third of all health care costs in the US. In 2010, 21.4% of adults had one or more emergency room visits. By 2017, due to increased focus in preventive care, that had decreased to 18.6%.