$650M for community prevention is milestone on road to reform

Jeff Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health, writes about how stimulus funds  for community prevention will create a laboratory for what might be achieved with health reform.

The Administration’s announcement Thursday that $650 million in stimulus money will be made available for community prevention and wellness programs is a defining moment for public health in America. It is also an important down payment on the road toward real health reform that will help make Americans healthier.

With two-thirds of Americans overweight or obese and one in five Americans still smoking, this initiative, called Communities Putting Prevention to Work, is tackling two of the biggest health crises in the United States head on.  It will help reduce rates of preventable diseases and give millions of Americans the opportunity to live healthier, higher quality lives. Evidence-based community prevention programs have shown success in improving nutrition, increasing physical activity, and preventing tobacco use by making healthy choices easier choices forAmericans.

What is unique about this initiative is its scale. The program, funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will earmark funds for approximately 30 to 40 communities around the country and to states to build or expand upon programs that prevent chronic disease and obesity by addressing physical activity, nutrition and tobacco use. Potentially, it will direct as much as $10 to $20 million to larger cities, representing one of the great advances for prevention programs that this country has seen in decades.

The program will give strong priority to communities that suffer a disproportionate share of preventable chronic diseases and where leaders are able to assemble a communitywide consortium of partners, including the local and state health departments, schools, businesses, community and faith-based organizations, health plans and health centers. At the end of the day, these programs will be the laboratory for showing what results we can have if we invest more heavily in wellness and prevention.

At the end of the day, these investments will be the laboratory for showing what results we might achieve if we invest more heavily in wellness and prevention.

We are convinced they will have a big payoff. In 2008, Trust for America released a study, Prevention for a Healthier America, which found that for every $1 spent on proven community-based disease prevention programs, the county could net a return of $5.60 in health care costs within five years.   On Monday, we’ll release a Compendium of Proven Community-Based Prevention Programs report, along with the New York Academy of Medicine, featuring a range of evidence-based, disease prevention programs that have shown results for improving health and reducing costs.

Finally, this initiative through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a milestone towards the recognition that health reform must start with prevention in order to be successful.   We must take this as a down payment towards the creation of a dependable annual funding stream to allow hundreds of additional communities around the country to benefit from these programs. The future health and wealth of our country demands we improve the health of Americans, not just how we pay for our care.

At yesterday’s briefing, I asked HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius where prevention programs ranked on her priority list for health reform legislation.  She replied that it was at the very top – as it was for both the First Lady and President Obama.  Between now and the end of the year when legislation lands on the President’s desk to be signed, I believe it’s the role of the public health community to cement that support, from Congress as well as from the Administration.

To learn more about the Communities Putting Prevention to Work initiative, visit http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/programs/cdc/chronicdisease.html

 

Comments

[Dr. Fred Thysell]

As a primary care MD, my perspective is that the majority of my patients have preventable lifestyle disorders (mostly obesity related) or minor illnesses/injuries that get better with 'first aid'. The point being,'the patient is the problem(and the solution)'. The system needs some help as well but the overwhelming issue is the lack of individual patient responsibility. How can you expect [health care] rights without exercising some responsibility? For the most part, if you're sick you're doing something wrong. If you don't want to be sick,you don't have to be.It's your choice.