Your observation about the dominance of medical care over public health is very insightful. I would like to offer two possible explanations. First, while health is often taken for granted by the young, this neglect is made worse by the modern lifestyle - work is hectic; material well-being is priced above others; among other bi-products of progress.
Second, as there is more money to be made in cure than prevention, businesses in medical care have tried various means to raise the demand for their products and services even though there may be more effective means. For example, although there is evidence that nutritional means are more effective than medical treatments that are way more expensive, only a relatively small amount of research and education focuses on it. The reason is obvious: if we all simply started changing our diets in order to prevent/mitigate health problems, pharmaceutical companies would be out of business.