A new Harvard study has discovered that seniors on Medicare are spending less money on healthcare. In fact, it has lessened dramatically since 2005. By 2012, the reductions saved the average person around $3,000 a year. With the whole senior population, the savings equaled around $120 billion.

Seniors on Medicare are Spending Less on Healthcare

What is causing this drastic change? Could it because there is better preventive care available?

Most economists say that prevention doesn’t actually save money, but does save lives. Prevention programs need a lot of people to be effective, which makes them expensive. If everyone doesn’t get better from the program, then economists consider it a loss.

A Harvard study shows that this isn’t necessarily true. In fact, the study shows that cardiovascular health is the reason there is a spending dip among seniors on Medicare.

This is because heart disease and strokes are what make people spend so much time in hospitals. The number of people suffering from these conditions has declined a lot, this is due to preventive care.

So overall, this study shows that preventive care makes a difference, not only health wise, but money wise too. Who knows what this will mean with Medicare and healthcare spending in the future?

Read more here.