TEN ARGUMENTS FOR THE NEW JERSEY ANNUAL PREVENTION EXAMINATION

 1. It is the right thing to do. Every adult should be entitled to this annual prevention examination.

2. It helps people take charge of their own medical destinies.

3. It improves consumer-provider relationships.

4. Where it is provided by employers or employer policies, it will almost surely improve morale and productivity.

5. In the long run, it will reduce health costs.

6. It establishes what is and what is not accepted health promotion-disease prevention policy. This is critical.

7. It establishes the principle that we will pay for proved health promotion-disease prevention tests; for extras, there should be co-payments, supplemental insurance, or out-of-pocket expenditures.

8. The New Jersey approach helps avoid well-intentioned, but ill-advised legislative actions that are undocumented or unfunded - and could destroy health promotion-disease prevention by making it too expensive.

9. The New Jersey law includes provisions to protect the integrity of the health promotion mandate.

10. The New Jersey Law provides a structure for the future when we have more documented health promotion-disease prevention tests than can be accommodated within a realistic cap at a given annual prevention examination. By adjusting time lines for tests, health care provider and consumer can work together to formulate the optimal set of tests for that individual at that annual examination, given the monies available.

Note: The Healthful Life Program and the New Jersey Health Wellness Promotion Act on which it is based, is not similar to the standard annual physical examination, the executive physical, the comprehensive annual laboratory examination. It is the 17 tests and actions, a limited medical history and physical examination, and a health promotion consultation period.