While the nation still struggles to understand the impact and implementation of health reform, the Prevention and Public Health Fund has the potential to transform the way we think about health. Are we bold enough to seize that opportunity?
In today's Huffington Post, we look at the recent decisions made with federal prevention money--the establishment of the National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council, the decision to allot prevention money towards workforce development, and our hopes for the best use of the funds moving forward.
Needless to say, we were very disappointed that the first expenditure from that fund emphasized the medical side rather than prevention; we need to move money toward prevention rather than away from it to fulfill the president's statement that prevention is an important key to making health reform work. Prevention Institute has attended all the meetings of stimulus grantees receiving Communitites Putting Prevention to Work funding and already are seeing the beings of some bold initiatives to reframe the nation's health. But the stimulus only funds fourty-four communities. We need health and prevention for our nation, and we need it from the Prevention and Public Health Fund.
Read the column.