“Prevention is better than cure”. Out of a country’s health budget, a large proportion should be diverted from treatment to spending on health education and preventative measures. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

“Prevention is better than cure”. Out of a country’s health budget, a large proportion should be diverted from treatment to spending on health education and preventative measures. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Providing appropriate healthcare services to the inhabitants of a country has always remained an important social initiative, but consistently rising per capita health expenditure has invited a debate on finding ways of cutting down public expenditure in this domain. Some have even suggested channelizing funds to programs aimed at encouraging prevention of ailments rather than combating them.

Diverting public money to initiatives aimed at teaching inhabitants about healthy practices can be more productive and fruitful as it would help in ensuring keeping various fatal and crippling diseases at bay, thereby reducing the need to manufacture and procure expensive medicines and equipment. This would enable the government to channelize the much precious funds to ensuring better life and facilities for the inhabitants of a country.

Furthermore, prioritizing creating awareness among masses about benefits of adopting and leading a healthy lifestyle over treating would result in improving the health index of society, especially in terms of fatal and crippling diseases. This, is turn would enhance the productivity of the society by shifting its focus to more vital areas rather than exploring ways to treat ailments.

However, reducing financial outlay and changing preferences from providing treatment to educating about healthy lifestyle and prevention of ailments could prove to be a disaster as the life is becoming complex and many people may not be receptive to the idea of leading a disciplined life. Moreover, certain illnesses and disorders occur due to unavoidable reasons especially those linked to the aging, complex lifestyle and pollution, for instances, some illnesses like arthritis start occurring naturally and cannot be prevented even by following a healthy lifestyle.

To sum up, I feel that government should keep both prevention and cure on priority and not focus only on one area - both of these enjoy equal relevance for effective healthcare interventions.