Focusing on improving health outcomes instead of decreasing access to testing and treatments will do more to contain health spending growth.

According to Canada’s Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, chronic disease is estimated to account for 87 percent of disability in Canada and two-thirds (67%) of all direct health care costs. In the U.S, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that chronic disease accounts for as much as 75 percent of all health care costs. Chronic diseases are largely preventable and controllable. The impacts of chronic disease are the result of behavior: what people do or don’t do as they go about their lives in terms of eating, exercising, smoking, complying and adhering to their treatments.

In Canada, many policy makers regard decreased access to testing and treatments as the best way to lower health costs instead of focusing on concrete improvement in health outcomes. Effective measures exist today to prevent or delay the chronic disease burden and its devastating consequences. Promoting healthy behaviors, ensuring early detection through screening and testing and providing access to effective medicines are all cost-effective in reducing unnecessary health service use and reducing the overall economic burden of chronic disease.