Do preventive health care services save money?

Now that the health care debate is over and the PPACA is the law of the land, let’s review.  Congress in its infinite wisdom added extensive preventive and wellness services as part of the benefit mandate. Initially these mandates apply to new health plans, but as existing plans lose their grandfather status the mandates will apply to more and more plans.  The list of services to be covered at 100% is extensive and is expected to grow on a regular basis.  We will ignore the question of why such services need to be covered at 100% when open heart surgery is covered at 80%, so the question at hand is, does coverage for these services save money as claimed by the President and every (Democratic) politician this side of Mars? 

We already know that this and other mandates under PPACA are causing premiums to increase more rapidly, but does screening for high blood pressure, etc. save money (especially when it is paid for at 100%)?  The answer, yes, maybe and no. 

The Problem with Prevention was written on a New York Times Blog in August 2009, take a look for yourself.