Earlier this month, CEOs and industry leaders from across health care convened in Washington for think tank Milken Institute’s Future of Health Summit, an event focused on a well-studied yet persistent issue: how to create broad and equitable access to the most advanced treatments, tests, and technologies.
The problem is real. According to the Centers for Disease Control, numerous social determinants can impact someone’s health and longevity. For example, people who live in poor or rural communities often have higher rates of being overweight or obese, which increases the risk of getting at least 13 kinds of cancer. In other cases, people without reliable transportation, live in rural areas, or have jobs without sick leave have lower rates of getting screened, leading to cancer being found at later stages.
Still, there is hope.
The rate of innovation, an important catalyst to combating systemic shortcomings, is faster than ever. Health data is ubiquitous and increasingly harnessed to improve both individual and population outcomes. AI and advanced diagnostics are personalizing care to our individual health challenges that even a decade ago was not possible. I am awed by the health care transformation we are witnessing.
A liquid biopsy - a simple blood draw - can screen for cancer, support doctors’ treatment selections, and help patients and their care providers stay ahead of the disease by monitoring for its return before scans even detect it. These advancements and others like it are moving our health care system from one focused on symptom management to one that prioritizes disease prevention.
The shift cannot happen fast enough.
The U.S. spends $4.3 trillion dollars on health care and only about a quarter of it is on prevention and wellness, according to 2021’s National Health Expenditure Accounts. While the pendulum is expected to swing in a better direction over the next decade, broad and equitable access to cutting edge advancements remains unnecessarily delayed because of antiquated and neglected regulatory processes that fail to keep pace with innovation. Delays in an innovation’s “last mile” to patients are frequently predictable and fixable.
The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) - an independent advisory body that oversees preventive service recommendations for the country - is chronically under-funded and lacks the resources to rapidly respond to changes in science. Its recommendations are updated on a five-year cadence, often longer. That means even if the Food and Drug Administration approves and Medicare covers a promising new screening test for colorectal cancer or some other disease, it could still take years for patients to gain access to the new test because private health insurers are only required to cover preventive services that are recommended by the USPSTF.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
President Biden’s proposed 2024 budget includes a request for $6.5 million additional annual funding for USPSTF to meet and review preventive services more frequently. $6.5 million. That’s it. Imagine the lives and money we could save and equity we could create with this modest investment in speeding access to our country’s most promising innovations.
Congress must act and provide incremental funding for the USPSTF and the life-saving work it does on behalf of every American.
AmirAli Talasaz is the co-CEO of Guardant Health, a leading precision oncology company.
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