[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8678]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           PRIMARY PREVENTION

  (Mr. MURPHY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. Speaker, we are all concerned about the high cost of 
health care. Americans can take action to reduce costs by taking better 
care of themselves, and the Federal Government should play a lead role 
in helping out.
  For example, obesity-related diseases have annual costs of $100 
billion. Yet 7 out of 10 adults are overweight and obesity rates among 
children have doubled in the last decade. Diseases associated with a 
lack of physical activity amounted to a yearly cost of $76 billion. The 
direct and indirect medical costs of smoking are $138 billion per year, 
and the costs of alcohol abuse are about $184 billion in one year.
  Businesses that educate people about healthy lifestyles can reduce 
health care costs. Companies like Motorola, Caterpillar and Johnson & 
Johnson have saved $1 to $4 in benefits for every dollar spent on these 
programs.
  The Federal Government should lead by example and leverage Federal 
resources to promote preventive health care solutions to educate the 
public on health risks and personal responsibility to prevent these 
avoidable conditions and health care costs.
  Want to learn more? I encourage my colleagues to visit my Web site at 
murphy.house.gov to learn more about these issues.

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