Dutch philosopher Desiderius Erasmus, around 1500, famously said, ‘Prevention is better than cure.’ Since then, this quote remains relevant, especially in the field of health and social care.
Preventive health care and curative health care are two aspects of the healthcare industry. To decide the best course for your employees and their dependents, you must understand this topic in depth.
Here, let’s discuss the pros and cons of preventive health care. Understanding the benefits of preventive health care and the disadvantages of preventive health care helps you make an informed decision at the time of purchase.
What Is Preventive Health Care?
As the name suggests, preventive health care aims at preventing future medical conditions and illnesses with the help of constant and regular health screenings, vaccinations, and other such methods. It also aids in the detection of conditions at an early, curable stage. If undetected, these issues can become difficult, even fatal, in nature.
In many cases, catching the disease before the body starts exhibiting evident signs and symptoms or even in the early stages results in complete eradication and sometimes full recovery. Early diagnosis also means you are better prepared to combat the condition.
When the body already exhibits signs, it means it’s too late for preventive care. And the treatment for any newly diagnosed disease, or any pre-existing conditions, does not fall under the purview of preventive healthcare.
Offering preventive services to your employees secures their future and saves you money from higher healthcare expenses in the future.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Find out more about the importance of preventive healthcare for employees in India here.
What Are 4 Examples Of Preventive Health Care?
Now, let’s discuss what falls under the category of preventive health care, and check out a few examples.
1. Blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol test
High blood pressure, high blood sugar levels, and high cholesterol are a few of the most common chronic diseases and health problems in this generation. Some of the risk factors are family history, poor food habits, excessive stress, or an unhealthy lifestyle.
With the help of preventive medicine and care, if you’re able to catch these conditions early on, they are manageable through proper diet and medication, helping you return to your regular health.
2. Vaccinations
Vaccines and shots help combat and prevent infections, and strengthen the immunity system to fight diseases. Through centuries, from cholera to influenza to polio and now COVID-19, this method has helped save millions of lives.
If you weren't already, it’s time to pay heed to the importance of vaccinations and shots to maintain regular health.
3. Mammograms, colonoscopies, and other cancer screenings
Whether a family friend or a loved one, if you’ve seen someone undergo cancer, you know it’s not easy. Sometimes, the disease can show up in healthy individuals.
But, with the help of regular health screenings like mammograms for breast cancer, colonoscopies for colon or rectal cancer, or any other cancer screening tests along with other effective preventive medicine and care solutions, you reduce risk factors, catch it at an early stage and treat it to remission or even prevent it altogether.
4. Mental wellness
On the outside, you can look like a chirpy bird that’s full of energy, but inside you may feel all sorts of unexplainable things. With long working hours, stress, and other issues, mental health problems can creep in and you won’t even know it.
It’s best to keep a check on mental wellness every now and then with preventive services. Counseling, therapy, or group stress alleviating activities such as Zumba, yoga, or laughter programs, take care of your mental health and wellness and prevent any serious, threatening mental disorder to crop up and affecting your daily living.
Employee Wellness Handbook
A quick and easy-to-read guide for improving your employee wellbeing efforts
7 Pros And Cons Of Preventive Health Care
Looking at both sides of the coin, i.e., the benefits of preventive health care and its disadvantages will help you determine if it’s the right choice for you and your employees.
Pros or benefits of preventive health care
1. Improved employee engagement
With the help of preventive healthcare, you can ensure your workforce is truly engaged. They have all the resources like timely doctor consultations, access to fitness sessions, mental health consults, etc. which ensure they’re in good health. Engaged employees bring their A-game to work and their commitment and loyalty shine through.
2. Security about health
Preventive health care helps your employees sustain a healthy lifestyle. This means they know they’re on a healthier path and steering clear of illnesses and chronic diseases, and other health problems.
3. Early diagnosis
In case of chronic diseases or other health problems, with the right preventive care method like screening tests, you can catch conditions early on and diagnose them effectively. Early diagnosis means a much better shot at better results and even complete recovery to regular health.
4. Reduced stress
Constant worry, whether related to finances or healthcare, inevitably leads to stress. Through preventive healthcare, individuals have the opportunity to address and resolve issues related to stress. This gives you mental peace about your health, which helps you work and perform better.
Sign up with Loop and enjoy free wellness sessions, like Zumba classes, Pilates, or a session on nutrition, for your team twice a month!
5. Control pre-existing conditions
Preventive healthcare methods like screening tests not only ward off future chronic diseases, but also help maintain good health via a fit and active lifestyle, and keep the old, pre-existing conditions under control, too.
6. Reduce future expense
By taking care of your present, your employees can save a lot of money in the future. Wouldn’t you rather spend thousands now than lakhs later? Well, that’s what preventive care does!
7. Increased lifespan
Preventive services not only promise you good health but also a longer life, a healthier one, with fewer chronic diseases and conditions.
Employee healthcare handbook
A quick and easy-to-read guide for implementing employee benefits that work for you and your organization
Cons or disadvantages of preventive health care
1. Lack of awareness
While preventive services are extremely helpful, people are unaware of the concept and its countless benefits. This leads to not completely utilizing the method to its full potential.
2. Too many options
When you have multiple options in front of you, it’s confusing to pick the best suitable path for you. Furthermore, a field like healthcare requires the right guidance.
A solution to this problem is to partner with a company that offers you multiple health benefits, including group health insurance and preventive health care, along with proper guidance from experts in the field.
3. Immediate cost
It is undeniable that preventive health care comes with certain costs, such as screening tests. However, think of health screenings as an investment with much higher returns and benefits. A little expense now saves you money in the future.
4. Accessibility
Not all preventive care services are accessible to everybody. For example, many people don’t have the access to the right care to effectively address health problems.
This also has an easy solution. A partner like Loop provides primary care in the form of doctor consults on the Loop app. You can chat with a medical advisor who’s akin to a family doctor and will help better your healthcare journey for any health issues you face with simple solutions you can incorporate into your daily life.
5. Dependency on curative care
Even though preventive health care prevents many health issues through screening tests and other methods, it is still co-dependent on curative health care for the treatment part.
For pre-existing conditions or any new diagnoses, your employees will need curative care in the form of treatments.
Click here to find out 5 differences between preventive care and curative care.
6. Acceptance
As strange as it might seem, people have a difficult time accepting that they need to undergo health screenings, even when they are healthy and are showing no symptoms of illness. This rigidity doesn’t help with preventive care.
7. Focus on curative care
Unfortunately, in the healthcare industry, the main focus is still on curative health care or acute treatment for a health issue or good health. However, with increased emphasis on preventive health care, the overall picture of health and wellness improves on a much larger scale.
Does Preventive Health Care Reduce Healthcare Costs?
You can observe that preventive health care has costs as both its advantage and disadvantage. This is because while it is true that preventive care requires an initial cost, it is also accurate that the cost is far less than the future costs. In reality, it saves you money!
This approach reduces a lot of healthcare costs because things like health screenings ward off and prevents future health issues, thus ending further expenses on those conditions. With an early diagnosis, the expenses are comparatively lesser, rather than in the final stages, which require a huge amount of money.
Think of preventive care as a future investment. You spend a little now, which eventually results in the delay or even prevents the onset of diseases.
Download this ultimate guide for implementing employee benefits that work for you and your company
Invest Today For A Brighter Tomorrow
A thorough understanding of preventive care will help you make an informed decision for your employees and organization.
By partnering with a company like Loop, you can explore preventive care and incorporate it into your healthcare.
Sign up for Loop’s comprehensive health insurance policy, and enjoy primary care, wellness programs, and other health benefits. It is cost-effective and easy to use, and it provides amazing value-added preventive care regimens.
Once your employees are signed up to Loop’s group health insurance plan, they simply need to open the Loop app when in need and talk with specialized medical advisors who are available 24X7 to assist you and your employees in your healthcare journey.
With chatbot speed responses, there's no need to wait in line or leave your home. You can care for yourself and your family anywhere, anytime!
