IELTS Writing Task 2: Preventing illness or treating it

Health budgets are limited, so governments must decide how to use them. It is sometimes suggested that more should be spent on stopping people from becoming ill than on curing them afterwards. I largely agree with this view, although I do not think that treatment should be reduced.

There are convincing reasons for investing in prevention. Many of the most common serious conditions, including heart disease and some types of diabetes, are closely linked to smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise. Programmes that teach children about healthy eating, or campaigns that help adults to stop smoking, cost very little compared with years of hospital care. Vaccination is another clear example: a single injection can protect a child from a disease that would be expensive and painful to treat. Prevention therefore saves both money and suffering.

Nevertheless, it would be wrong to take money away from hospitals to pay for this. People who are ill today cannot wait for the results of a campaign that may take twenty years to work. Moreover, many illnesses have nothing to do with lifestyle. Accidents, inherited conditions and the problems of old age will always require doctors, nurses and medicines, however healthy the population becomes.

For this reason, I believe that governments should increase spending on prevention gradually, using new funds or savings from elsewhere, so that the benefits can appear without harming current patients. Over time, a healthier population should need less treatment, and the balance of spending will change naturally.

In conclusion, I agree that prevention deserves a larger share of the health budget because it is cheaper and kinder than cure. However, this should be achieved by adding resources, not by cutting care for those who need it now.