the price of neglect

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the accumulated costs — financial, physical, social, and psychological — that result from failing to attend to a need, problem, or responsibility in a timely manner; in healthcare the price of neglect is evident in the dramatically higher costs and poorer outcomes associated with late-stage treatment of diseases that could have been prevented or caught early through screening and primary care; in public health policy the price of neglect is paid through pandemic preparedness failures, environmental health crises, and the long-term productivity losses of populations burdened by preventable disease; the phrase serves as an argument for investment in prevention, maintenance, and early intervention by making the deferred costs of inaction visible and quantifiable, countering the political tendency to prioritise immediate budget savings over long-term system health