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The future of America’s health is at a crossroads, which requires us to make a critical decision.  Will we choose to walk down a road that promises a healthier future for all Americans or will we choose to continue down a path that has allowed the United States to lag behind 28 United Nations’ countries in life expectancy?

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the United States annually spends $2.2 trillion dollars on health care – more than any other nation.¹  Incredibly, seventy-five percent of our health care budget is spent largely on preventable chronic disease conditions², and still the United States has the highest rate of preventable deaths in 19 industrialized countries.³

Even more troubling is the fact that the number of people in the United States with preventable chronic diseases continues to rise steadily.  If unchecked, public health experts agree that nearly half of our population will suffer from at least one chronic disease by the year 2025.⁴

We can no longer ignore the science that links nearly 60 percent of premature deaths in our country to preventable environmental conditions, social circumstances, or negative behavioral choices.⁵

We have known for almost a decade, for example, that obesity and physical inactivity account for more than 300,000 premature deaths each year in the United States – second only to tobacco-related deaths.⁶ As we continue to ignore this preventable reality, our nation’s obesity epidemic has seen many years of steady increases.  It may very well be that today’s children will be the first in a generation to have shorter, less healthy lives than their parents. 

However, there is good news.  The road to a healthy future requires some simple, small choices that have proven to be effective in reducing the incidence and severity of many chronic diseases.  They include: better eating habits, exercising more and taking an aspirin everyday. ⁷   

Unfortunately, these proven preventive strategies fail to reach large numbers of people at risk for chronic diseases.  One reason for this failure is that our health system continues to prioritize medical care based on disease treatment rather than health care focused on prevention and disease control.  We only address diseases after they become more costly and difficult to treat.

For example, in 2007, the costs related to diabetes were estimated to total $174 billion.  Medical expenditures totaled $116 billion, and indirect costs resulting from reduced productivity, increased absenteeism, disease-related unemployment disability, and loss of productive capacity due to early mortality totaled $58 billion.⁸ If we invested in prevention instead of just treatment of this disease, we could save money, productivity and lives. A new report from a public health non-profit called Trust for America’s Health found that if we reduced Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure rates by just five percent, we could save more than $2.8 billion annually in health care costs within one to two years.⁹ 

Next year, as a new Congress and a new Administration work to fix our broken health care system, it is imperative that we prioritize disease prevention and public health in the formulation of any health policy.  For that reason, I introduced a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives to raise awareness about the need to increase our federal commitment to prevention and public health.  I am pleased to be joined in this effort by my co-chairs from the Study Group on Public Health: Representatives Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Kay Granger (R-TX); Representative Jim Moran (D-VA) from the Prevention Caucus; and Representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Michael Castle (R-DE) of the Diabetes Caucus.

As the resolution makes clear, the future health of our country is at a critical point in our history.  New research has shown that investing in clinical and community-level prevention saves lives and significantly reduces health care costs. Specifically, Trust for America’s Health found that an investment of $10 per person per year in proven community-based programs to increase physical activity, improve nutrition, and prevent smoking and other tobacco use, could save the country more than $16 billion annually within five years.  This is a return of $5.60 for every $1.¹⁰

It is clear that the road to a timely, accessible, effective and affordable health care system is paved with prevention and public health.  Both are key elements to reaching our goal of becoming a stronger and healthier nation.