Prevention Matters

Suzanne Bohan and Sandy Kleffman write in the Contra Costa Times about  "unprecedented — yet uncontroversial — disease prevention initiatives whose inclusion has been lost in the rancorous debate over health care reform legislation working its way through Congress."

Such initiatives provide federally funded security guards at dangerous neighborhood parks and federal grants to poor neighborhoods to build grocery stores or to keep school gyms open after hours.

"The prevention provisions mark a victory for advocates and federal lawmakers who for years have unsuccessfully sought more federal funding to close the gap in health disparities and life expectancies between richer and poorer Americans," Bohan and Kleffman write.