Repealing Prevention and Public Health Fund

Floor Speech

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Mr. DINGELL. Madam Chair, today we rise to debate irresponsible legislation cloaked in fiscal responsibility, legislation that will assuredly put the nation's public health at risk.

Today's debate is not one over concerns of mandatory funding for our nation's public health investments, it is another shot at the Affordable Care Act.

Our health system is inherently designed to provide treatment for the sick and ill, but does not currently contain the incentives necessary to keep consumers from becoming sick in the first place.

Just two years ago total health expenditures in the U.S. was $2.5 trillion, and only 3 percent of that funding was spent on preventive health care services and health promotion.

If we want to cut down on the costs of hospitalizations and inappropriate emergency room visits, we have to help American families better manage their chronic diseases like diabetes or asthma and help them stay well through vaccines and screenings.

This was the purpose behind the Prevention and Public Health Fund--to make a strong investment into prevention and wellness programs and promote innovative prevention that will help to save our health system costs in the long run.

And now we are seeing the good work that the Prevention and Public Health Fund is doing in our states.

Michigan has received over $2 million for public health activities--building capacity in our health departments, hiring and training epidemiologists and scientists to study infectious diseases, improving access and quality of health services in medically underserved communities, and helping to promote better primary care for those in need.

Thus, the Prevention and Public Health Fund is not only creating much-needed jobs in my home state, but also undertaking meaningful projects that will help to improve the health of our country.

Let us be clear that this legislation will not become law, and rather than use the time of this body for valuable legislation such as creating jobs and improving our economy and the health of our nation, my colleagues choose to focus their efforts on another vehicle to defend the Affordable Care Act.

I urge my colleagues to vote against this legislation.

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