December 6, 2011 12:56PM 

# ObamaCare’s Preventive-Care Subsidies: Neither Free nor Cost-Effective 

By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) 

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Matt Yglesias criticizes [my comment in today’s *USA Today*](http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011-12-05/Medicare-prescription-drugs-health-care-law/51663580/1) when he [writes](http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2011/12/06/prevention_dollars_are_well_spent_.html), “making preventive health care free to the patient is…very cost-effective.”

Except [it isn’t “free” to the patient](https://www.cato.org/dear-health-care-journos-theres-nothing-free-about-obamacare/).

And [it isn’t cost-effective](https://www.cato.org/1-oz-prevention-1-oz-cure/). The evidence strongly suggests we would “buy” as much health if we just waited for people to get sick and treated them then.

##### Related Tags 

[Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) 

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