ABSTRACT
The famous saying that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” summarizes the philosophy that underlies the creation of wellness, preventive care, and chronic disease management programs. Economists approach this idea by thinking about the inputs that are needed to produce a carand then applying that concept of production to think about the diverse activities that produce health. The list of activities that contribute to producing health clearly includes healthcare, but it also includes individual decisions to eat healthy foods and exercise regularly, public health measures such as vaccinations and access to clean drinking water, and regulatory measures such as highway speed limits. These factors are important: public health measures account for a large share of the increase in life expectancy that occurred during the twentieth century, and as we saw in Chapter 1, comparison of U.S. and Canadian mortality rates highlight the importance of obesity and violence.
