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Senate Amendment to Pay for Student Loan Fix with Prevention Fund Undermines Historic Investment in Health
May 24, 2012
WASHINGTON -- May 24, 2012 -- The U.S. Senate is considering an amendment to offset the cost of student loan programs by cutting the Prevention and Public Health Fund.
A statement from American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) President Christopher W. Hansen follows:
Families affected by cancer are urging lawmakers in the U.S. Senate to oppose an amendment that would use prevention and public health funding for the unintended purpose of offsetting the cost of student loan programs.
It is estimated that more than 577,000 Americans will die from cancer this year. Evidence shows that half of those cancer deaths could be averted if people had access to proven cancer prevention strategies. The Prevention and Public Health Fund for the first time refocuses the nation on preventing disease before it occurs, rather than waiting to treat until people they get sick.
In the two short years since it was established, the Prevention Fund created new evidence-based programs in all 50 states and dozens of communities across the country. These grantees are using Prevention Fund dollars to help control the obesity epidemic, reduce tobacco use, increase mammograms, fight health disparities that disproportionately impact low-income Americans, and fill the gaps in our health care workforce.
Money from the Prevention and Public Health Fund is already improving the health of Americans across the country, work that will transform our health system, allowing the nation to control costs and improve health outcomes.
Undermining this historic effort to refocus the nation on staying well would drastically impact our ability to prevent health problems before they begin. We cannot go back to a system that waits to treat until people get sick.
We call on lawmakers to oppose this proposal to pay for the student loan fix with money intended for health prevention and oppose any future efforts to use prevention and public health funding for anything other than its intended purpose -- to prevent chronic disease.
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.fightcancer.org.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Alissa Crispino or Steven Weiss
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
Phone: (202) 661-5772 or (202) 661-5711
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
#acscan #cancer #prevention #preventionfund
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