New Health Initiatives Put Spotlight on Prevention

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WASHINGTON — Amid all the rancor leading up to passage of the new health care law, Congress with little fanfare approved a set of wide-ranging public initiatives to prevent disease and encourage healthy behavior.

The initiatives provide a big dose of prevention in an effort to counter the powerful forces that encourage people to engage in sedentary lifestyles, to smoke and to eat fatty, high-calorie foods.

The emphasis on disease prevention comes nine months after President Obama signed a law that gave sweeping authority to the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products. It reflects a sea change in federal health programs and policy, said Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Finance Committee.

Republicans supported many of the health promotion initiatives and objected to a few, but had much bigger concerns about the overall law. The proposals largely escaped public notice as lawmakers fought over abortion, taxes and a government-run “public option.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/health/policy/05health.html?th&emc=th