[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1944 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1944

 To fully fund the Prevention and Public Health Fund and reaffirm the 
    importance of prevention in the United States healthcare system.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 24, 2019

 Mr. Blumenthal (for himself, Mr. Brown, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Markey, Mr. 
    Casey, Ms. Klobuchar, Ms. Smith, and Mr. Booker) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                 Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To fully fund the Prevention and Public Health Fund and reaffirm the 
    importance of prevention in the United States healthcare system.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Public Health Funding Restoration 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Prevention and Public Health Fund (section 4002 of 
        the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (42 U.S.C. 300u-
        11) was designed ``to provide for expanded and sustained 
        national investment in prevention and public health programs to 
        improve health and help restrain the rate of growth in private 
        and public health care costs''.
            (2) Funding under such section is essential to core efforts 
        at the Department of Health and Human Services and in local and 
        State health departments to prevent and control the spread of 
        infectious disease, and prevent injuries and the development of 
        chronic conditions.
            (3) Prevention and Public Health Fund dollars support 
        evidenced-based investments in tobacco use prevention and 
        cessation, nutrition, mental health, childhood lead poisoning 
        prevention, elder care initiatives, and immunizations, among 
        other prevention initiatives. Funding gives States and 
        communities the flexibility to respond to public health threats 
        that may be unique to their communities.
            (4) Such prevention efforts have shown to be effective. 
        Funding increases for community-based public health programs 
        reduce infant deaths and preventable deaths caused by cancer, 
        diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Every dollar spent on 
        prevention saves nearly $6 in health spending and every dollar 
        spent on childhood vaccines saves $16.50 in future health care 
        costs.
            (5) Investments in prevention reduce the cost of health 
        care in the United States. $2,900,000,000 in investments in 
        community-based disease prevention is estimated to save 
        $16,500,000,000 annually within 5 years.
            (6) Cuts to the Prevention and Public Health Fund and other 
        public health prevention efforts undermine efforts to create an 
        affordable and accessible health care system, and a better 
        quality life for Americans.
            (7) Restoring Prevention and Public Health Fund funding to 
        $2,000,000,000 annually will allow the Fund to invest in more 
        innovative, evidence-based public health programs and maintain 
        and expand investments in programs with demonstrated success.

SEC. 3. PREVENTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH FUND.

    Section 4002(b) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 
(42 U.S.C. 300u-11(b)) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (4), by adding at the end ``and''; and
            (2) by striking paragraphs (5) through (9) and inserting 
        the following:
            ``(5) for fiscal year 2020 and each fiscal year thereafter, 
        $2,000,000,000.''.
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