Partnership for Prevention Issues Principles for Health Reform and Legislative Agenda for Health Improvement 

Left to right, Partnership President John M. Clymer, Congressional Prevention Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), and Partnership Board Chair Jonathan E. Fielding confer at a reception before Partnership’s May 9 Board of Directors Meeting

Taken together, “The Need for Prevention-Centered Health Reform” and “A Prevention Policy Agenda for the 110th Congress” represent a strategy to emphasize prevention as a signal issue in both Congress and in the broader arena of system-wide health care reform.
 
“To have meaningful health system reform or legislation, we need to use the best evidence on the kind of prevention measures that will make the most impact,” said Partnership’s Board of Directors Chair Jonathan E. Fielding, MD, MPH, MBA. “What we’re adopting today are valuable tools in that effort.”
 
“The Need for Prevention-Centered Health Reform” details several policy principles for health reform that will have a significant and lasting impact on the health of the American people. These include the establishment of both clinical and community preventive services as a basic benefit of proposed health financing reform.

For lawmakers, “A Prevention Policy Agenda for the 110th Congress” proposes four high-impact policies that can be enacted to save thousands of American lives and improve the lives of millions more each year: 1) Authorize the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco 2) Restore Federal Trade Commission authority to regulate marketing aimed at children 3) Increase the cost of alcoholic beverages, and 4) Emphasize prevention in Medicare and Medicaid.

“We need to strengthen the U.S. health system by increasing the investment in prevention,” said Partnership for Prevention President John M. Clymer. “These prevention principles and policy recommendations will bring us closer to the day when we no longer have to spend 95 cents of every health care dollar on treating disease after it occurs or becomes acute.”

Partnership for Prevention is a nationally-recognized nonprofit membership organization of medical and health professionals, academic institutions, voluntary health associations, businesses, government agencies and other groups dedicated to advancing policies and practices to prevent disease and improve the health of all Americans. Partnership works to build evidence of sound disease prevention and health promotion measures, and to speed their adoption in both the public and private sector through the review of leading edge scientific research and the development of analytical tools for implementation. The organization serves as a platform for education and advocacy to a diverse audience of lawmakers, corporations, health policy leaders, the media and the general public.