Prevention vs. Treatment

What's the Right Balance?

Edited by Halley S. Faust, MD, MPH, MA and Paul T. Menzel, Ph.D.

Compares prevention and treatment by looking comprehensively-philosophically, legally, religiously, and scientifically-at their underlying values.
Contrary to common beliefs that prevention is lamentably underemphasized, there may be grounds in contemporary western values for prioritizing treatment over prevention, though rationally that appears to make little sense. Numerous essays in the volume carefully examine such alleged reasons for according moral priority to treatment.
Philosopher Norman Daniels for the first time lays out a view of the prevention-treatment relationship in the context of his influential theory of justice in health and health care.
Major religious traditions are explored for their views on the relative importance of treatment and prevention, as is the interesting intersection of western acute medicine and Confucian values in Hong Kong.

Prevention vs. Treatment

What's the Right Balance?

Edited by Halley S. Faust, MD, MPH, MA and Paul T. Menzel, Ph.D.

Description

Everyone knows the old adage, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," but we seem not to live by it. In the Western world's health care it is commonly observed that prevention is underfunded while treatment attracts greater overall priority. This book explores this observation by examining the actual spending on prevention, the history of health policies and structural features that affect prevention's apparent relative lack of emphasis, the values that may justify priority for treatment or for prevention, and the religious and cultural traditions that have shaped the moral relationship between these two types of care.

Economists, scholars of public health and preventive medicine, philosophers, lawyers, and religious ethicists contribute specific sophisticated discussions. Their descriptions and claims lean in various directions and are often surprising. For example, the imbalance between prevention and treatment may not be as great as is often thought, and we may be spending excessively on many preventive measures just as we do on treatments compelled by the felt demands of rescue. A standard practice in health economics that disadvantages prevention, "discounting" the value of future lives, may rest on weak empirical and moral grounds. And it is an "apocalyptic" religious tradition (Seventh-day Adventism) whose members have put some of the strongest and most effective priority on long-term prevention.

Prevention vs. Treatment is distinctive in carefully clarifying the nature of the empirical and moral debates about the proper balance of prevention and treatment; the book pursues those debates from a wide range of perspectives, many not often heard from in health policy.

Prevention vs. Treatment

What's the Right Balance?

Edited by Halley S. Faust, MD, MPH, MA and Paul T. Menzel, Ph.D.

1. Introduction
Part I. Evidence, Policy, and History
2. What Is Currently Spent on Prevention as Compared to Treatment?
3. Prevention vs. Cure: An Economist's Perspective on the Right Balance
4. Toward a More Evidence-Based Preventive Medicine: Issues in the Science of Clinical Prevention
5. Prevention and the Science and Politics of Evidence
6. Historical Perspectives on Structural Barriers to Prevention
Part II. Philosophical and Legal Analysis
7. Our Alleviation Bias: Why Do We Value Alleviating Harm More than Preventing Harm?
8. Treatment and Prevention: What Do We Owe Each Other?
9. The Variable Value of Life and Fairness to the Already Ill: Two Promising but Tenuous Arguments for Treatment's Priority
10. The Slow Transition of U.S. Law Toward a Greater Emphasis on Prevention
11. Should the Value of Future Health Benefits Be Time-Discounted?
Part III. Religious and Cultural Perspectives
12. Prevention vs. Treatment: How Do We Allocate Scarce Resources from Jewish Ethical Perspectives?
13. Cure vs. Prevention: Catholic Perspectives
14. Loving God and the Neighbor: Protestant Insights for Prevention and Treatment
15. Apocalypse and Health: Treatment and Prevention in the Seventh-day Adventist Tradition
16. Prevention vs. Treatment in Hong Kong: Constrained Utilitarianism with a Chinese Character
Index

Prevention vs. Treatment

What's the Right Balance?

Edited by Halley S. Faust, MD, MPH, MA and Paul T. Menzel, Ph.D.

Author Information

Halley S. Faust, MD, MPH, MA is a preventive medicine physician, philosopher, health care executive, and venture capitalist, and the President-Elect of the American College of Preventive Medicine. He is Clinical Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of New Mexico.

Paul T. Menzel, PhD has taught philosophy at Pacific Lutheran University(Tacoma, WA) since 1971. He has authored two books on moral questions about health economics and numerous papers on rights to health care and the role of values in shaping choices of health system structure.

Contributors:

Roy Branson
Ho Mun Chan
Norman Daniels
Halley S. Faust
Shimon Glick
Paul Hughes-Cromwick
Alan Jotkowitz
Nuala Patricia Kenny
Paul T. Menzel
George Miller
Diana B. Petitti
Thaddeus Mason Pope
Charles Roehrig
Louise B. Russell
Ani M. Turner
Aana Marie Vigen
Robert B. Wallace

Prevention vs. Treatment

What's the Right Balance?

Edited by Halley S. Faust, MD, MPH, MA and Paul T. Menzel, Ph.D.

Reviews and Awards

"Prevention vs. Treatment is an exceptionally wide-ranging and provocative collection. It is valuable not only for its new contributions but also as an orienting guide to a wider literature. Political philosophy and health policy alike would be well served if there were more volumes like it."--J. Paul Kelleher, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"In short, this book is a model anthology, since it utilizes the authors' great range of expertise and interests to illuminate the issues in complementary rather than disparate ways. The topic could not be more central to the future of healthcare in the United States, and the volume highlights the central role of bioethics and other areas of the humanities and social sciences in setting policy and making progress in finding a healthy balance between treatment and prevention." -- Peter H. Schwartz, Indiana University Center for Bioethics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indiana University, Purdue University, Indianapolis, The American Journal of Bioethics

"An enjoyable read for health science scholars, this collection of essays outlines serious ideological concerns that shadow the philosophy of health care and health science... Academics from a wide range of backgrounds may find these essays to be a catalyst for in-depth conversations among their colleagues and students. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers/faculty, and professionals." -- S. Williams, York College, CUNY, CHOICE

"The book flows logically and has interesting, thought-provoking examples that pose moral arguments followed by interesting analysis. It is well structured... It fulfils thestated 'hope' of the editors, which is to emphasize that the balance between prevention and treatment is seen as a moral and economic issue as well as a health-related one." -- Occupational Medicine

Prevention vs. Treatment

What's the Right Balance?

Edited by Halley S. Faust, MD, MPH, MA and Paul T. Menzel, Ph.D.

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Posted on November 28, 2011

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