If current childhood obesity trends hold, we could see for the first time that our nation’s children will live shorter lives than their parents. What a troubling future that lies before them. The good news is there is an opportunity to stop this historic health debacle. To prevent chronic disease, a community must invest in proven, effective initiatives that improve health. The Affordable Care Act was designed to do just that. The law’s Prevention and Public Health Fund represents the largest single investment in community-based prevention programs. It was also designed to ensure a stable funding stream for public health and wellness programs during tough fiscal times like today.
The fund is already having a profound impact on the physical and fiscal health of communities across the country. It is sending a real lifeline to communities, particularly those struggling with rising rates of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes by supporting programs that improve the diets of our population, increase physical activity, and reduce tobacco use among other vital services. The fund established a new grant program that creates healthier communities by making healthy living easier and more affordable simply through improvements to where people work, live, learn and play. Isn’t that important to the people living in the Santa Maria Valley?
Unfortunately, Congress has recently been backpedaling from its commitment to improve the future of our nation’s health. Just this year, the fund was slashed by $51 million by sequestration, while another $454 million was gutted from the fund to support enrollment for the new health insurance marketplace. Additional cuts will become an ugly reality year after year for 10 years if Congress does not find an alternative solution to reduce the deficit.
The bottom line is we will lose ground on progress the fund has made if it is not properly supported. With so much at stake, we cannot afford to allow Congress to chip away at the essential funding for preventive health programs each year. This move would only continue the senseless fluctuation in federal funding of public health programs that we have had in recent years and will only hamper the capacity of our local health departments to support critical disease and injury prevention programs as intended under the law. Have they forgotten that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?
The fund holds incredible promise. Congress has an obligation to ensure the law reaches its full potential and that dedicated investments in the fund are maintained and increased to the full amount.
This article appears in Aug 8-15, 2013.