Push to make chronic disease part of 2008 discussion

Some of the nation’s leading healthcare policy specialists, including a former surgeon general, announced a policy initiative today to pressure presidential candidates to develop strategies to combat chronic diseases as part of their health care plans.

A newly formed alliance of public health organizations called the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease argues that chronic illnesses account for 75 cents of every dollar spent on healthcare and are responsible for seven out of every 10 deaths in the country.

“For too long, the national debate has been focused on access and who gets covered,” said Ken Thorpe, Chair of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and the founder of the initiative. “But what we should be talking about is how we can drive costs down and provide better care.”

The group wants candidates to develop strategies to fight cancer, diabetes, and obesity instead of just focusing on access to insurance or improving costs by digitizing medical records.

Over 80 of the nation’s largest and most powerful organizations, including the US Chamber of Commerce, Service Employees International Union and the YMCA, have signed on to the alliance platform.

Former Surgeon General Richard Carmona will chair the national effort. At a news conference in Concord, Dr. Susan Lynch, New Hampshire’s First Lady, was named honorary chairwoman for the New Hampshire chapter. The announcement came one day before Democratic presidential candidates are set to debate at Dartmouth College.

Healthcare has emerged as one of the leading domestic policy issues.

A recent University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll of likely New Hampshire presidential primary voters found 17 percent of Democrats said healthcare, not Iraq, was the most important issue facing the country. Only six percent of Republicans said health care was the biggest issue, ranking below Iraq, illegal immigration, and foreign policy in general.

Thorpe said the organization would work with presidential candidates and their staffs on the platform they set out. Currently he said healthcare proposals from Democrats Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards as well as Republican Mike Huckabee have focused adequately on chronic disease.

“Major health care reform is not going to happen by one health plan alone,” Thorpe said. “It is going to take a national strategy of a lot of people coming to together to get it accomplished. Getting these groups together around a common strategy is what we are doing.”