Dallas, TX/London, United Kingdom; July 15, 2008 -- Health care entrepreneur, Christopher Fey, founder and chief executive of U.S. Preventive Medicine, Inc. (
www.USPreventiveMedicine.com), a health management company and the established leader in prevention, predicts a ‘perfect storm’ is brewing with the alignment of the growing crises in health care, housing and energy.
Fey said a national push for prevention, early detection and chronic disease management, along the likes of the Manhattan Project which developed nuclear weapons in just six short years, could lessen the long term impact of the major financial factors – which include a $2.2 trillion health care crisis in tandem with the distress in the energy and housing markets – that could cripple the country.
The good news, he notes, is that there is a solution for the health care crisis.
“According to Wikipedia, the phrase ‘perfect storm’ refers to the simultaneous occurrence of events which, taken individually, would be far less powerful than the storm resulting of their chance combination. Such occurrences are rare by their very nature, so that even a slight change in any one event contributing to the perfect storm would lessen its overall impact,” said Fey, U.S. Preventive Medicine® Chairman and CEO. “Ironically, our company benefits from the health care crisis in that we deliver solutions, specifically prevention, early detection and chronic disease management, which improve health and lessen health care costs.”
Numerous studies, including the 2007 Milken Institute Report: “An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease,” forecasts the implementation of a national effort focused on prevention, early detection and chronic disease management could save the country hundreds of billions annually, with savings surpassing a trillion dollars annually in about 15 years. This comes at a time when health care costs are doubling every seven to 10 years.
“Health care as a percentage of GDP is 15 percent today and is growing to 30 percent over the next couple of decades. We have created a ‘sick care’ health care system that is unsustainable. Coupled with the housing and energy crises, the health care crisis could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. The solution is clear and present: prevention, early detection and chronic disease management. We need to move now.” Fey said.
“Everyone has been talking so much about the housing and energy crises, that the looming health care crisis has been almost forgotten,” he said. “This is a mistake that must be recognized by our nation’s government and business leaders. Particularly because, unlike the energy crisis, there are available, proven solutions that can lessen the economic impact on employer, government and consumer health care sectors. Failing to do so, could push the country to the brink of economic disaster. Acting now could head off the pending ‘perfect storm’.”