Health Promotion— Medicine That Works

Abstract

This year, some two million Americans will die (see Table 1). At least half of these deaths—and the attendant medical expenses— are directly related to known risk factors. Millions more Americans suffer needlessly from ill health. Yet America spends less than 3% of its health care dollars on the preventive care that would greatly reduce this carnage. Why?Open image in new windowTable 1Actual Causes of Death in the United States 1990