Yeah, and I am not saying that cancer is one of the major illnesses that can be prevented. Maybe someday in the future we'll have a better grasp on causes of cancer, but for the most part we still don't know too much about it.
What I AM talking about, are the myriad of preventable conditions that we DO know more about, we know the risk factors, we know what increases your risk, and we know what people can do to mitigate their risk. Will it prevent 100% of all cases? No... but we can statistically reduce the occurrence of such diseases to a significant degree, taking that burden off of the medical system.
If I am going broke because it costs $10,000 for treatment every time I shoot myself in the foot... should we be focusing on reducing what it costs to treat me, or on stopping me from shooting my foot off?
Prevention and life style changes are important. However, any time politicians try to address life style through law (say a tax on soda) they are attacked. My guess is that education is the best chance to change things, but even that requires a willingness to change.
There are also real problems with people in inner cities not have access to quality food. It's not a coincidence that you find fast food restaurants in proliferation in inner cities.
I personally feel mental health needs to be addressed as well. Poor mental health is a good predictor of poor physical health. This then leads to a spiral that compounds health issues even further.
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