By Brad Wilson

There is not much use debating the value of preventive health care. Science and data show us that it’s better for our physical, emotional and financial health to live a healthy lifestyle than to treat conditions once we are sick.

To cite but one data source among many, the Trust for America’s Health tells us that investing as little as $10 per person in community prevention programs can yield as much as $16 billion in annual U.S. health care savings. That calculates to a better than 5-to-1 return on investment.

This kind of data serves to confirm what we already knew from our grandparents when they mentioned “an ounce of prevention.”

The question in my mind is not whether to invest in preventing chronic disease and in keeping people healthy, but how to best go about it. In North Carolina we are fortunate to have a resource dedicated to answering that question and then putting that knowledge into practice.

The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University has a 40-year history of supporting preventive health throughout our state.  The school’s focus on preparing doctors to practice primary care and to serve North Carolina communities sets it apart from our other outstanding institutions of medical education.

In particular, Brody is successful at ensuring that we have primary care doctors who live and practice in underserved communities across the state — areas where access is limited and where rates of poverty and illness are high.  In fact, only North Carolina residents are admitted to the school.

Brody’s mission gives it a critical role in primary care and a significant influence on both the health of North Carolinians and the amount we all spend on health care.  Consider some of the impact Brody has had on our state’s health care system:

• More than half the roughly 2,200 physicians who have graduated from Brody practice in North Carolina.
• Brody is consistently ranked among the nation’s top five medical schools for dedication to primary care, as measured by the percentage of students who choose family medicine each year.
• Brody-educated doctors stay in primary care. The percentage still practicing primary care after five years is higher than other medical schools.

Any way you look at it, Brody stands out as a North Carolina treasure. The problem is that Brody is an underfunded resource.  Ironically, the very mission that gave life to Brody four decades ago – to train family doctors to serve a population in need of better health – threatens to cut short the gains we have made in improving our health as a state.

Unlike other medical schools in North Carolina, Brody does not own its teaching hospital.  Absent that source of revenue, Brody must depend more on state appropriations to maintain its critical role in preparing primary care physicians.

ECU is asking the General Assembly for significant new state appropriations to maintain Brody’s positive contributions to the health of North Carolina and to maintain its critical role in preparing primary care physicians to serve their communities.

The $8 million additional funding needed this year, as well as potentially $30 million long-term, would represent a worthy and effective investment in our state and in the health of its residents.

The school has effectively maximized its other funding sources.  In 1990, more than half of Brody’s budget came from state appropriations. That figure is now down to 21 percent.  To fully meet its mission, the school needs to see this percentage climbing again.

We are encouraged that Gov. McCrory included the additional $8 million for Brody in his recommended budget for 2015-16, and that the state House appears to include the funds in early versions of its budget.

Brody’s unique mission and funding model demand strong state support.  The correlation between access to quality primary care provided by this valuable state resource and cost-effective health care delivery makes that support imperative.

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Brad Wilson, president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, is co-chair of Higher Education Works and former chair of the UNC Board of Governors.