White House focuses on prevention with release of national strategy

Described as a way to improve the nation's prosperity, the Obama administration announced a sweeping plan to emphasize health promotion and disease prevention for all walks of life.

NPR: Administration Prescribes Prevention For Nation's Health
Obama administration officials unveiled a plan to improve our nation's prosperity. No, not with more jobs, but by helping Americans stay healthy at every stage of life. But first, they got a workout congratulating each other on a job well done with the National Prevention Strategy, a plan required by the federal law overhauling health care, during a Thursday media briefing (Thrasybule, 6/16).

The Miami Herald: White House Puts Health Focus On Prevention
Declaring a goal of changing America's "sick-care system to a health-care system," the Obama administration Thursday announced a sweeping strategy to emphasize prevention in all walks of life. The plan builds on initiatives such as Michelle Obama's campaign for healthy eating and the Food and Drug Administration's new power to regulate tobacco. More broadly, it requires a range of federal agencies to consider prevention in everything they do - and asks the rest of the country to think of health care as something that goes well beyond drugs and scans to include safer streets, cleaner water, and easier access to healthy foods (Schatz and Sapatkin, 6/17).

Kansas Health Institute: National Prevention Strategy Unveiled
Federal health officials held a press conference today to unveil the first National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy. The plan, called for by the federal health reform law passed last year, outlines actions that the National Prevention Council concluded would increase the number of healthy Americans (6/16).