Attempts at disease prevention in the U.S. are no panacea in reducing health-care costs, as noted in our earlier post today on Janet Adamy’s WSJ report . A recent Der Spiegel cover article delivers its own criticism against preventive medicine, giving insight into how the debate is playing out overseas. The German news magazine takes on the growing movement for cancer testing in Germany and claims screening for breast, prostate and colon cancer does hardly anyone good except for the doctors who can rake in fees from health insurers. The article looks at Christa Maar, a German version of Katie Couric when it comes to colon cancer screening. Maar lost her son Felix to the disease when he was 33. Just a year after his death in 2001, a foundation she started persuaded German authorities to cover colonoscopies for everyone over 55. Writer Markus Grill says the only

people proven to benefit from colonoscopies are doctors, who get the equivalent of $270 or so from German health insurers every time they perform one. Maar concedes that there aren’t randomized trials demonstrating the benefit for patients, but tells Grill, “All the doctors I know tell me that such a study isn’t necessary because the benefit is completely clear.” She says the tests could help save more than 10,000 Germans a year from dying of colon cancer. Germany is soon to become the first country to introduce universal skin-cancer screening. Everyone over 35 will have the right to a skin-cancer test every two years, according to the magazine. It quotes a top official as saying the move followed “massive pressure” from the public and dermatologists “in spite of weak evidence.” Image: iStockphoto

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Disease Prevention in Germany Is Mostly Good for Doctors