Why Skipping Preventive Care Costs You More in the Long Run

It is easy to push routine checkups to the bottom of the list when work is busy, money feels tight, or nothing hurts right now. Preventive care looks like something you can always do next month, especially if you are juggling kids, deadlines, and bills. On the surface, skipping one visit feels like a small way to save time and money.

The problem is that health issues do not wait for schedules to calm down. When people put off basic screenings, bloodwork, and wellness visits, small problems have more time to grow into expensive, disruptive crises. That shift shows up in higher medical bills, more time away from work, and more financial stress for both employees and employers.

Preventive care is quietly getting delayed

In 2025, skipping preventive care is almost normal. A national Wellness Matters survey from Aflac found that 90 percent of Americans have put off a checkup or recommended screening that could have helped detect serious illness earlier (Source: Aflac). Many people say they feel too busy, too stressed, or too uncertain about coverage to schedule those visits, so they plan to deal with it later.

The trouble is that conditions like high blood pressure, prediabetes, or high cholesterol usually do not cause noticeable symptoms at first. Without regular visits, those risk factors build for years in the background. When they finally get noticed, treatment often involves more medications, specialist visits, and hospital care. Skipped preventive care does not erase the risk; it simply moves it into a more expensive future.

What delayed checkups really cost over time

Preventive care is designed to catch problems early and limit the impact of chronic disease. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services describe preventive care as services that prevent illness or reduce the impact of chronic conditions through screenings, vaccines, checkups, and counseling (Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services). When those services are used on time, many issues can be managed in primary care instead of in the emergency room.

When people skip or delay these visits, the cost curve bends in the opposite direction. A small blood pressure issue can turn into heart disease that requires long term treatment. Missed cancer screenings can mean catching a tumor at a later stage, which usually means more complex treatment and higher bills. Even something simple like an untreated infection can escalate into an urgent care or hospital stay if it is left alone for too long. Over a lifetime, those delayed decisions often add up to higher out of pocket expenses, more missed workdays, and more strain on families.

Why people still skip care, even with insurance

Even when people have health coverage, many avoid checkups because of cost pressure. A 2025 analysis from KFF found that about one in three adults reported skipping or postponing needed health care in the past year because of cost (Source: KFF). That includes services like office visits, tests, and prescriptions that could have helped manage problems earlier.

For employees, the math can feel harsh. If a family is already stretched by rent, groceries, transportation, and debt payments, even a modest copay or lab bill feels risky. On top of that, taking time away from work for appointments can mean lost wages or added stress. Many people are also unsure which services their plan treats as preventive and fully covered, so they avoid scheduling anything at all because they fear surprise bills. The result is a pattern where people wait until symptoms are severe, then turn to urgent care or emergency departments, which are more expensive for everyone involved.

The employer side of the bill

Health costs are not only rising for households. National projections show that total United States health spending is expected to reach about 5.6 trillion dollars in 2025, with costs continuing to climb over the next decade (Source: Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker). Employers feel that pressure in the form of higher premiums, more unpredictable claims, and growing concern about absenteeism when unmanaged health issues flare up.

When employees postpone preventive care, it increases the chance that conditions will be diagnosed late, require more costly treatment, and lead to more missed days of work. That pattern drives claims higher and makes it harder to keep benefits affordable. On the other hand, when employees can access primary care, telehealth, mental health support, and key screenings early at low or no out of pocket cost, problems are more likely to be handled before they become major claims. For employers, making preventive care easy and affordable is one of the simplest ways to reduce long term risk without cutting benefits.

Putting preventive care back on the priority list

The real win comes when preventive care feels simple instead of stressful. Employees are far more likely to keep up with checkups and screenings when they can book visits quickly, talk to a provider after hours if needed, and understand their costs before they walk in. When those services are built into a benefit structure that uses Section 125 tax savings to offset costs, preventive care can actually protect paychecks instead of draining them.

If your organization wants to make preventive care a real advantage and not just a line in the benefits booklet, partnering with a solution that focuses on first dollar coverage and easier access can help. 125 Managed Health works with employers to layer in zero net cost benefits that support primary care, telemedicine, and mental health while using tax strategy to keep budgets stable. When employees can act early without worrying about surprise bills, everyone benefits from lower stress, better health, and more predictable costs over time.

Start your journey with 125 Managed Health today.

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