Hi, my name is Manan Trivedi and I’m running for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 6th Congressional District. I’m an Iraq war veteran and a primary care physician. Besides my clinical work as a doctor, I’ve also spent a lot of time in the health policy world as a health services researcher. I felt as a candidate it was important to give something back to all the people who have been helping me so much and talk about one of the issues that I feel is so critical in this healthcare debate—preventive medicine and wellness. So I decided to start these healthcare diaries.
In our first installment, I wanted to discuss the H1N1 and seasonal influenza vaccinations and their importance in preventive medicine and cost-effective care. Vaccinations, in general, are one of the most cost-effective things we do in medicine. Preventive measures such as these should be covered by all types of health plans. However, there are still plenty of insurance plans that do not fully cover vaccinations and other preventive medicine efforts shown to be effective and cost saving. In my opinion, healthcare reform legislation must mandate coverage of proven preventive medicine measures. We can not let the insurance companies get away with these kind of despicable gaps in coverage anymore.
The H1N1 or swine flu has been in the news a lot lately and there is now a vaccination for it that is recommended to select populations. It is also that time of year to get your seasonal influenza vaccination. Like every year, I am telling nearly all my patients to get the seasonal influenza vaccination and I am advising those who should get the H1N1 vaccination to do so as well. I have no doubts about the safety or efficacy of the H1N1 vaccination and firmly believe that it, like the seasonal influenza vaccination, will save lives and decrease healthcare costs.
The H1N1 vaccination is currently recommended to the following groups of patients:
• pregnant women
• people who provide care for or live with children younger than 6 months of age
• health care and emergency medical services personnel
• people between the ages of six months to 24 years
• people from the ages of 25 through 64 who are deemed at higher risk because of certain chronic health disorders such as asthma, diabetes, or a weakened immune system
The seasonal influenza vaccination—or “flu shot” is generally recommended to anyone who wants to avoid getting the flu. However, there are a few groups for whom it especially important. These include anyone over the age of 50, pregnant women, healthcare workers, those with certain chronic medical conditions, and children aged 6 months to 19 years.
So if you fall into one these groups, go out and get your shots and know that you are doing your part to save costs and make our country healthier.
I hope you got some useful info from this entry. I think it is really unfortunate that in the current health reform debate there is not more discussion about preventive medicine and efforts to improve wellness. Right now in medicine we focus too much on illness and not enough on ways we can live better and healthier every day. The main reason we spend so much on healthcare and still don’t see overall wellness improving is because we have a “disease” care system as opposed to a true “health” care system.
If you want more information on H1N1 or seasonal influenza I recommend the CDC's web pages here and here.
If you are interested in learning more about cost-effectiveness in healthcare here are some good starting points:
American College of Physicians
JAMA
and US Dept. of Health AHRQ
This is my first time for this, but I am going to stick around for a bit and take some questions. And as always, please remember to consult your own physician before you proceed with any medical treatment.