The Wellness Wire: Issue 19

From reactive costs to proactive gains. Why insurers, employers, and teams are betting big on prevention.

🛡️ The prevention paradox

We all know prevention works, yet most health systems still wait for illness.

Although up to 80% of chronic diseases are preventable, prevention efforts receive a minimal portion of total health spending. The paradox? When prevention succeeds, nothing happens: no diagnosis, no procedure, no bill.

That’s changing. From insurers to employers, the economics are flipping, and keeping people healthy is finally becoming good business.

📈 The rise of preventive health

Healthcare costs are rising everywhere, and chronic diseases are driving the surge.
In South Africa, non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease now account for 70–80% of healthcare costs and cause more than half of all deaths.

For businesses, the fallout is financial as well as human. Absenteeism and presenteeism together cost South African companies an estimated R70–100 billion per year in lost productivity.

Meanwhile, technology and policy are catching up.

• The government’s National Strategic Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases is targeting population-level prevention between now and 2027.

• Globally, preventive health technology is booming, projected to exceed $600 billion by 2030.

• Digital-first platforms are enhancing prevention by making it measurable, engaging, and scalable.

The momentum is clear: the age of reactive “sick care” is giving way to proactive, continuous prevention.

🧩 Why prevention works (and why it's hard)

Understanding this trend means looking beyond the balance sheets and into human behaviour itself.

The biology: Chronic diseases take years to appear, but they are shaped by daily decisions such as what you eat, how you move, how you sleep, and how you handle stress.

The psychology: Humans are wired for immediacy. We reward the short-term dopamine hit over the long-term benefit of avoiding illness.

The system flaw: Fee-for-service medicine rewards treatment, not prevention. There’s no invoice for not getting sick.

The fix: Shift the incentives and pay for health maintenance, not just intervention.

The evidence shows that well-designed preventive programs can reduce healthcare costs and improve productivity. Successful prevention hinges on alignment and collaboration among individuals, employers, insurers, and technology providers moving together towards a common goal.

⚙️ The new preventive playbook

Prevention has evolved beyond simple lifestyle tips; it needs to operate as a complete system.

• Integration over isolation. Nutrition, movement, sleep, and mental wellbeing work best when connected, not siloed.

• Data meets behaviour. Continuous tracking from wearables and apps makes risk visible and actionable.

• Human + digital. Behaviour change sticks when tech nudges are paired with expert coaching and social support.

• Incentives that matter. Reward-based systems can increase participation by over 60%, turning “shoulds” into habits.

• Meaningful outcomes, not just activity. The new barometer is measuring concrete outcomes such as lower blood sugar, smaller waistlines, and better sleep, not just clicks or logins.

In other words, prevention is becoming operational, not aspirational.

🌍 Prevention as infrastructure

The biggest shift ahead is conceptual: prevention is no longer "wellness". It is infrastructure.

Employers are integrating digital health platforms to keep their teams energised and engaged.
Insurers are redesigning products around health engagement rather than claims history.
Governments are embedding prevention targets into national policy.

Within this evolution, platforms like Strove are helping connect the dots, providing an operating system for preventive health that links data, coaching, and engagement into a unified experience.

The business case is simple. Healthier people mean fewer claims, higher productivity, and longer working lives. Prevention is no longer a perk; it is a strategic asset.

🪄 Small steps, big payoffs

Simple, evidence-based habits deliver exponential returns over time:

• 🚶‍♀️ Move more: 150 minutes of weekly activity cuts heart disease risk by up to 40%.

• 🥦 Eat better: A Mediterranean-style diet can slash the risk of diabetes by 30%.

• 😴 Sleep enough: Fewer than 6 hours a night doubles the risk of metabolic syndrome.

• 🧘 Stress less: Mindfulness practices reduce blood pressure and absenteeism.

• 👥 Stay connected: Strong social ties lower mortality risk by around 50%.

Small shifts, repeated daily, build a biological moat against chronic disease.

🎯 From reactive care to preventive systems

The next decade will redefine healthcare around risk reduction, not disease management.

For individuals, prevention means healthspan: more years lived well.
For employers and insurers, it means lower costs and better performance.
For society, it is the only sustainable path forward.

The prevention paradox is finally resolving because good health, as it turns out, is good economics.

📝 Quick takeaways

• Up to 80% of chronic diseases are preventable, yet prevention still receives minimal funding.

• Prevention is now a financial and technological opportunity, not just a moral one.

• Employers and insurers who invest in prevention will define the next decade of health.

• Digital ecosystems like Strove make prevention measurable, rewarding, and real.

📢 Spread the word

If this issue sparked ideas, share it with a contact who believes prevention is better than cure, or hit subscribe to stay in the loop.

🏢 For organisations ready to lead the charge, the first step is to understand the tools that make it possible. See how Strove can help your team move from wellness as a perk to prevention as a strategy.