Repealing Prevention and Public Health Fund

Floor Speech

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Madam Chair, my amendment requires a government accountability study within 90 days of enactment of the law to study the impact the Prevention and Public Health initiative has on preventing chronic diseases and promoting public health.

Madam Chair, prevention works. It's smart. It saves the taxpayers money. It saves families money. And it saves lives. The Prevention and Public Health initiative empowers communities all across this great Nation to focus on prevention and wellness and what works for them when it comes to reducing cancer cases, reducing heart disease, reducing strokes back in our own hometowns.

In Florida alone, there are over 10 million cases of the seven most common chronic diseases--cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, mental disorders and pulmonary conditions. We all know our neighbors, friends, families, folks we go to church with, folks we see in the grocery store that suffer from these diseases. In a lot of these cases, if they had gotten early detection or if we had worked harder on prevention, they wouldn't have fallen into that trap of the disease and all that it brings for families and communities.

See, we have a better approach now. We are smarter in America. No longer should our health care system be focused only on taking care of folks in the hospital when they're sick or at the end stages. We're smarter. We can prevent a lot of this through education and being proactive and encouraging a healthier lifestyle.

And that's what the Prevention and Public Health Initiative does. State and local communities are able to decide what works best for them. This isn't Washington dictating what you should do. This is saying to our local hometowns and communities, What do you think works best for you?

So I would encourage all of my colleagues to take a look at the grants that are being made. How are your local communities making these investments work in your own districts to invest in the long term health of our neighbors and the economic prosperity of our communities?

For example, in my hometown in my district, the Pinellas County Health Department has brought together neighborhoods and all the nonprofits to determine--you know what's going to work best in Pinellas County is encouraging healthier lifestyles, because we have an obesity epidemic. So they want to build sidewalks, trails, bike lanes, better lighting to encourage people to exercise. They are going to make improvements to parks so children have the opportunity to get out and play after school instead of sitting in front of the television.

I also have a great public university, the University of South Florida, in my district. They are training the modern health care workforce in Florida. These are professionals fighting on the front lines of our communities, and yes, creating jobs. This is creating jobs to encourage the healthier lifestyles that work. USF is able to identify where the gaps in training might be, develop updated curricula to ensure the public health care workforce receives the most up-to-date research, and then they can spread the word throughout the churches, the grocery stores, and our neighborhoods.

The Florida Department of Health is also using these grants in checking on all of our strategies Statewide to determine what works. See, this is one of the important goals of the Affordable Care Act, to promote wellness and prevention, to ensure healthier outcomes for our families and neighbors. And the examples I have just shared with you are only a few of what's happening all across the country.

We are smarter, Madam Chair. Prevention works. It saves taxpayers money. It saves families money. It saves lives.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Madam Chair, what a waste of money it would be if we do not act on education and knowledge, because we know that prevention works in America. When you educate someone on healthier lifestyles, the likelihood is that they are going to live a healthier life. They can prevent disease. Maybe they get early detection of their cancer. And that would save them a lot of money. You know, it also would save the government a lot of money. So let's be smart about this. Prevention works.

It reminds me now of my friends across the aisle, their proposal to end Medicare as we know it, because that is not smart. Again, like prevention, Medicare works. It saves families money. And the plan to privatize Medicare and turn it into a voucher program is not going to save any money. Indeed, it will shift the costs to families. They will have to pay more. So let's do what's smart. Prevention works.

I urge adoption of my amendment.

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Madam Chair, my amendment requires a Government Accountability Office study within 90 days of enactment of this bill to examine the economic impact Prevention and Public Health grants have on States and local communities.

Now, I can tell you we don't really need a study to understand how important prevention is and how important it is to empower our hometowns, local governments, nonprofits, whoever can come together on a local level and make these decisions about encouraging healthier lifestyles.

The beauty of the Public Health and Prevention initiative is it's not Washington dictating all across the country a cookie-cutter approach, one size fits all. Instead, we empower our neighbors to make these decisions on what works best for them. I would say that what works best in my hometown back in Tampa probably would not work quite as well in Fargo or in Missouri.

Prevention of disease is smart. It saves families money, and it saves taxpayers money as well. Now, over time we have all gotten smarter about preventing chronic diseases. Much of this cost-saving and life-saving focus was brought to bear in the landmark Affordable Care Act and this Prevention and Public Health initiative, which is the most historic investment in public health of our communities in the history of our country.

Now, far from the extreme arguments against prevention from my colleagues across the aisle, the Prevention and Public Health initiative empowers States, hometowns, and local communities to determine what works best for them. The annual treatment cost of chronic diseases costs the United States over $270 billion. And our economy has lost over $1 trillion in lost productivity. In Florida alone, we have lost over $68 billion in lost productivity and economic costs due to chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

So not only does prevention help us reduce costs, it can be an economic boost to our communities. I can tell you back in Florida we need as many economic boosts as we can get. We still have a high unemployment rate. We have a large number of uninsured. So what could be smarter than targeting some of our communities and encouraging them on healthier lifestyles so they can get back to work?

We are creating jobs through doing this. For example, at the University of South Florida College of Public Health, they've received one of the Prevention and Public Health grants where they're hiring and training the modern public health workforce. These are the folks with the most updated knowledge that are able to go out through communities and encourage them and educate them on what it would mean if they didn't smoke, if they didn't drink. Oftentimes, these initiatives have a great impact. They can save us money, and they can save us lives.

In Pinellas County they are combating childhood obesity, and they are already making a big economic impact in the community. Richard Curtin is the program manager for the Communities Putting Prevention to Work--Pinellas. He informed me they have created already 18 jobs as a direct result of this lifesaving work.

So I would encourage all of you to ask your folks back home what works best for them. Apply for these grants. We can make a difference all across America, save taxpayers money, save our families money, and save lives while we are at it.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Madam Chair, we are spending our dollars wisely when we are investing in prevention and wellness because prevention works. Prevention saves money, it saves the taxpayers money, it saves families money and it saves lives.

Now, there has been a great debate all across America about health care over the past few years. I think we can all agree on that. Part of the importance of the health care debate was that our health care system for too long has focused and spent money at the end game on sickness, when people have cancer, and that's fine, but we can be smarter about it. We have a lot more knowledge and a lot of experts that have advised us all that if you invest in prevention to encourage folks not to smoke, not to drink, those easy things, very easy in lifestyle, but oftentimes they need a little extra help. Parents should turn off the TV and the kids should go out and play. They should exercise.

But sometimes it's that little extra push. And if we can make a dent in childhood obesity, diabetes, cancer, a stroke, because we have encouraged healthier lifestyles with this very modest investment, that will be a great accomplishment. And that's part of what the health care debate was about, taking this modest investment in public health and empowering our communities to make those decisions on what works for them. Prevention works. It's smart.

I urge the adoption of my amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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