First Ever National Prevention Strategy Unveiled

On June 15th, the US Department of Health and Human Services unveiled its first ever National Prevention Strategy. The prevention strategy is a required component of the implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act, aka Health Reform. Underlying the strategy is a plan that reducing illness will ultimately pay off not only in quality of life, but in less money being spent on disease care. Why should we in the HIV care about this?
Key points put forth by Maria Alvarez, the Director of Health Policy in the Office of Health Policy Reform at DHHS here at HealthCare.gov's blog :
1) Making healthy choices easy and affordable will result in more Americans having access to prevention services such as HIV testing, breast exams, blood pressure checks, etc. Having health care providers focus on prevention in general should result in broader prevention efforts in general.
2) Access to health care in underserved communities will be improved -- having a large impact on illnesses with health disparities such as hypertension, heart disease, and HIV. This will be for both HIV care and for issues around primary care as well.
3) Programs will be better targeted through advance scientific knowledge and innovation through creation of electronic systems to better monitor what is working and what isn't-- we already do this in Ryan White funded clinics through CAREWare.
4) Create a fairer and easier way to understand the health care system - by 2014, insurance will be easier to obtain and there legally cannot be any discrimination against anyone with a pre-existing condition-- opening many options for those with HIV.