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Aging diseases – do they prevent preventive health care from saving costs?

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  • Afschin Gandjour

Abstract

The potential of preventive health‐care services to save costs is intensely debated. On the one hand, a longer life span increases the probability that new and costly diseases occur. On the other hand, a higher life expectancy postpones the expensive last year of life (LYOL), which becomes cheaper with age. Using US expenditure data on survivors and decedents the paper shows that prevention in the general population causes expenditures for additional diseases that are larger than the savings from postponing the LYOL. This result may also hold for prevention in diseased individuals. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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  • Afschin Gandjour, 2009. "Aging diseases – do they prevent preventive health care from saving costs?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(3), pages 355-362, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:18:y:2009:i:3:p:355-362
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.1370
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Victor R. Fuchs, 2018. "“Though Much Is Taken”: Reflections on Aging, Health, and Medical Care," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Health Economics and Policy Selected Writings by Victor Fuchs, chapter 33, pages 403-424, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Gandjour, Afschin & Lauterbach, Karl Wilhelm, 2005. "Does prevention save costs?: Considering deferral of the expensive last year of life," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 715-724, July.
    3. Polder, Johan J. & Barendregt, Jan J. & van Oers, Hans, 2006. "Health care costs in the last year of life--The Dutch experience," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(7), pages 1720-1731, October.
    4. John A. Nyman, 2004. "Should the consumption of survivors be included as a cost in cost–utility analysis?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(5), pages 417-427, May.
    5. Wickstrom, Jannie & Serup-Hansen, Niels & Kristiansen, Ivar Sonbo, 2002. "Future health care costs--do health care costs during the last year of life matter?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 161-172, November.
    6. Magnus Johannesson & David Meltzer & Richard M. O'Conor, 1997. "Incorporating Future Costs in Medical Cost-Effectiveness Analysis," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 17(4), pages 382-389, October.
    7. Zhou Yang & Edward C. Norton & Sally C. Stearns, 2003. "Longevity and Health Care Expenditures," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 58(1), pages 2-10.
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    1. Patrick Moore & Kathleen Bennett & Charles Normand, 2014. "The Importance of Proximity to Death in Modelling Community Medication Expenditures for Older People: Evidence From New Zealand," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 12(6), pages 623-633, December.

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