Preventive health care makes budget sense

Also feeling the effects of Missouri's budget restraints are the county health departments around the state, particularly in the area of preventive care for low-income women who don't qualify for Medicaid but lack adequate private health insurance.

Specifically, this program has screened women for breast and cervical cancer and diabetes and provided advice on nutrition and exercise.

There is little argument that preventative care is much more cost effective than treating the illnesses that arise from conditions that could have been offset or addressed in their earliest stages.

For many low-income women, the screenings were often the only health services they received.

Most county health departments are looking for ways to continue these screenings in spite of the loss of $5.1 million in funding statewide. This means fees that once were optional are now mandatory, and there will be fewer screening clinics scheduled in order to hold down costs.

County health departments will continue to let legislators know about the importance of preventative care when budget deliberations pick up prior to the start of the next legislative session in January. Must legislators will no doubt sympathize with those who emphasize the prudence of providing low-cost health care they shields the state from the expense of high-cost treatment of full-blown diseases.

Legislators would do well to examine their own motives behind the use of funds from sources like the national tobacco settlement -- clearly intended for health care -- that were instead used as stopgap funding to close the deficit between spending on other programs and limited state revenue.

Preventive health care is far more sensible and fiscally responsible than the burden of providing costly treatment for the state's indigent residents.