Sign-on to National Prevention Strategy letter
Dear Dr. Benjamin:
The undersigned organizations applaud you and your colleagues for beginning a national dialogue on the National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy (NPS). We believe the framework released on October 1st provides a valuable starting point for discussion by focusing on specific health improvement opportunities.
As organizations that advocated for the NPS to be included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), we see the NPS as a unique opportunity to commit the federal government to assuring that today’s generation of children have longer, healthier lives than their parents. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data ranks the U.S. last among comparable developed countries for life expectancy at birth and second to last for life expectancy at age 65 . The National Prevention Strategy should set as a national goal that the U.S. rank first in the world for life expectancy at birth and at age 65. This is an aspirational vision that all Americans can embrace. It will be more readily achieved if we also reduce the glaring health inequities that exist in our country. The strategy, then, becomes a vehicle for demonstrating how all federal agencies – as they carry out their core missions – can contribute to this universal goal.
We hope the NPS will frame for federal agencies, policymakers, and the American people the evidence-based argument that multiple factors contribute to long, healthy lives. Everything the federal government does – from education to violence prevention to community development -- contributes to longevity, along with quality health care and public health initiatives.
As you finalize the NPS, we urge that you set a limited number of broad, universally embraced health goals for the nation, committing all federal agencies to assess their core mission through a lens that assures they are working toward these goals, and moving the federal government to an integrative approach to reaching these national goals.
Again, we thank you for opening a national dialogue on the National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy, and we look forward to working with you in the months ahead as you finalize the document, and to subsequently work together to achieve progress toward the goals.
Sincerely,
Prevention Institute,
Trust for America's Health
The undersigned organizations applaud you and your colleagues for beginning a national dialogue on the National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy (NPS). We believe the framework released on October 1st provides a valuable starting point for discussion by focusing on specific health improvement opportunities.
As organizations that advocated for the NPS to be included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), we see the NPS as a unique opportunity to commit the federal government to assuring that today’s generation of children have longer, healthier lives than their parents. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data ranks the U.S. last among comparable developed countries for life expectancy at birth and second to last for life expectancy at age 65 . The National Prevention Strategy should set as a national goal that the U.S. rank first in the world for life expectancy at birth and at age 65. This is an aspirational vision that all Americans can embrace. It will be more readily achieved if we also reduce the glaring health inequities that exist in our country. The strategy, then, becomes a vehicle for demonstrating how all federal agencies – as they carry out their core missions – can contribute to this universal goal.
We hope the NPS will frame for federal agencies, policymakers, and the American people the evidence-based argument that multiple factors contribute to long, healthy lives. Everything the federal government does – from education to violence prevention to community development -- contributes to longevity, along with quality health care and public health initiatives.
As you finalize the NPS, we urge that you set a limited number of broad, universally embraced health goals for the nation, committing all federal agencies to assess their core mission through a lens that assures they are working toward these goals, and moving the federal government to an integrative approach to reaching these national goals.
Again, we thank you for opening a national dialogue on the National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy, and we look forward to working with you in the months ahead as you finalize the document, and to subsequently work together to achieve progress toward the goals.
Sincerely,
Prevention Institute,
Trust for America's Health