White House puts health focus on prevention

Philadelphia Inquirer Friday 17th June, 2011

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. "Why is it so hard to be healthy?" asked Sen. Tom Harkin (D., Iowa), an advocate for prevention, at a news conference in Washington. Cities and towns have been aski...

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