[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 99 (Tuesday, July 8, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1424]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     DISEASE PREVENTION IN MEDICARE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JIM RAMSTAD

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 8, 2003

  Mr. RAMSTAD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to submit into the Record a 
letter I have received from seven former Secretaries of the Department 
of Health and Human Services and its predecessor, the Department of 
Health, Education and Welfare. The letter, sent to many Members of 
Congress, and especially to the leadership of both bodies, requests 
that during our work on Medicare modernization we not forget about the 
benefits of disease prevention.
  The letter specifically references a report by Partnership For 
Prevention, ``A Better Medicare for Healthier Seniors: Recommendations 
to Modernize Medicare's Prevention Policies,'' which states that 
Medicare should increase its emphasis on keeping seniors healthy, not 
just treating them when they become sick, as a roadmap for a 
modernizing Medicare's prevention practices.
  The Partnership For Prevention (PFP) is a highly respected non-profit 
partnership of public and private sector organizations committed to 
finding solutions to health issues in a non-partisan and rigorously 
scientific manner. The report and other recommendations can be viewed 
and downloaded at the PFP Web site, http://www.prevent.org.
 I encourage my colleagues to read the attached letter, look at the 
Partnership For Prevention report and consider their recommendations in 
our further efforts to modernize Medicare.

         The Former Secretaries of Health and Human Services and 
           Health Education and Welfare


                                                June 25, 2003.

     Hon. Jim Ramstad,
     U.S. Representative, House of Representatives, Washington, DC 
         20515.
       Dear Mr. Ramstad, as former Secretaries of Health and Human 
     Services (or Health, Education and Welfare), we write to 
     encourage you to include disease prevention in discussions 
     about Medicare modernization.
       Congress created Medicare In 1965 based on the knowledge of 
     health and medicine at that time. Thus, Medicare came into 
     being as a national insurance system to cover hospitalization 
     and visits to clinicians' offices for diagnoses and 
     treatment.
       In the nearly four decades since Medicare's creation, 
     considerable research and practice have yielded proven ways 
     to not just diagnose and treat disease, but to prevent it and 
     promote longer, healthier life. Today we know that postponing 
     disability, maintaining social function, and sustaining 
     independence are achievable for seniors through evidence-
     based health promotion and disease prevention services. It is 
     nearly always preferable, both for the individual and for 
     society, to prevent disease instead of waiting to treat it.
       Congress has added selected preventive services to Medicare 
     but has not included other services that are proven 
     effective, nor has it encouraged Medicare to take a 
     comprehensive approach to disease prevention and health 
     promotion for America's seniors.
       A recent Harris Poll found that nine in ten American adults 
     want Medicare to be modernized and to put as much emphasis on 
     disease prevention as it does on disease treatment.
       The roadmap for this Medicare modernization is laid out in 
     a new Partnership for Prevention (Partnership) report, A 
     Better Medicare for Healthier Seniors: Recommendations to 
     Modernize Medicare's Prevention Policies, which you already 
     have received. These recommendations would move the U.S. 
     toward realization of our nation's two overarching national 
     health goals: Increasing life expectancy and improving 
     quality of life, and reducing disparities in health among 
     different segments of the population.
           Respectfully yours,
     Joseph A. Calafano, Jr.
     Richard S. Schweiker.
     Margaret M. Heckler.
     David Mathews, MD.
     Louis W. Sullivan, MD.
     Donna E. Shalala, PhD.
     Otis R. Bowen, MD.

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