I have often spoken of my struggle with weight gain due to an undiagnosed thyroid issue. At no time during my doctor visits did anyone notice issues with my thyroid. They also didn’t mention healthier diet alternatives for weight loss. Until they finally found a lump and I saw a specialist did doctors even suggest I had issues in my thyroid levels. Once this was acknowledged I was sent to a metabolic clinic. Here they finally “prescribed” a diet that would work to keep my metabolism healthy to lose weight. So it doesn’t surprise me that a study shows a healthy food “prescription” could save billions in health care costs. (1)
Food As Medicine “Prescriptions”
Interestingly the Tuft study published in PLOS Medicine was focused on the economics of health as opposed to proper care for patients. It finds if coverage could go towards healthy food as part of Medicare and/or Medicaid it would soon become a cost-effective approach to health care while improving health outcomes. (1)
Patients “prescribed” a healthy diet of fruit and veggies covered by health insurance would prove cost efficiency within just five years. “We found that encouraging people to eat healthy foods in Medicare and Medicaid – healthy food prescriptions – could be as or more cost-effective as other common interventions, such as preventative drug treatments for hypertension or high cholesterol,” says co-first author Yujin Lee, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts. (1)
Food As Medicine Scenarios
Based on covering 30% of the cost of purchases of healthier foods through Medicare and Medicaid, they estimated economic and health benefits. They used two scenarios and predicted outcomes based on a lifetime of using the new incentive: (1)
- 30% coverage of fruit and vegetable purchases: This model would prevent 1.93 million cardiovascular cases (CVD) and save $39.7 billion in healthcare utilization.
- 30% coverage of purchases of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts/seeds, seafood, and plant-based oils: This model would prevent 3.28 million CVD cases, 120,000 diabetes cases, and save $100.2 billion in health care utilization.
“Healthy food prescriptions are increasingly being considered in private health insurance programs, and the new 2018 Farm Bill includes a $25 million Produce Prescription Program to further evaluate this approach,” says Yuiin Lee. (1)
Food As Medicine Could Save Up to $210 Billion
The costs for the two possible incentives would be $122.6 billion for the fruit and vegetable incentive and $210.4 billion for the broader healthy food incentive. “Our findings support implementation and evaluation of healthy food prescriptions within healthcare systems to improve the diet and health of Americans,” says co-senior author Renata Micha, R.D., Dr.PH, research associate professor at the Friedman School. (1)
The “Food As Medicine” Concept
“Medicare and Medicaid are the two largest healthcare programs in the U.S., together covering one in three Americans and accounting for 1 in every 4 dollars in the entire federal budget,” says co-first author Dariush Mozaffarian, M.D., Dr.P.H, dean of the Friedman School. “These new findings support the concept of Food is Medicine: That innovative programs to encourage and reimburse healthy eating can and should be integrated into the healthcare system.” (1)
However, researchers point out the study can’t prove their projections. Instead, it provides estimates of the impact such a program might have if introduced. (1)
