Prevention Matters

This post is a week or so late, but it's too good to ignore.

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer recently created a stir in prevention circles with a column entitled "Prevention saves money? Nonsense. It adds to health costs." Out on the hustings, it inspired a letter to the Press of Atlantic City from Dr. Franklin X. Loeb, a pediatrician from Smithville, NJ.

"The sad fact is that before "prevention," nearly 50 percent of American children died of or were crippled by 'the diseases of childhood,'" Loeb wrote. "Doctors in Third World countries have had the questionable privilege of seeing far too many such kids. That is why, when asked what kind of help they could best use, almost without hesitation, their response is 'preventative measures.'

"Who knows? Krauthammer, with articles like this, might be able to persuade the bobble-headed czars now accumulating around the White House to eliminate preventative measures entirely. What would it cost to treat all of those kids with polio?"