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Top Actions Congress Can Take
to Promote the Nation's Health

News Release, March 24, 2000

The Partnership for Prevention, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization, has identified nine national policies with the greatest potential to prevent the most disease, injury, and premature death among Americans. If Congress were to enact these nine policies, a minimum of 160,000 premature deaths would be prevented each year, or twice the number of people who die each year from breast cancer and motor vehicle injuries combined:

• Increase the federal excise tax on tobacco.
• Confirm the authority of the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco, including advertising.
• Ban smoking in enclosed workplaces and public places nationwide.
• Provide incentives to states to establish uniform drinking and driving laws that: 1) set the per se legal blood alcohol content to .08 percent for adult drivers; 2) establish a strict minimum of one year administrative license revocation for persons who fail or refuse to take a breath test; and 3) provide federal funds to states for enforcement of drinking and driving laws.
• Increase the federal excise tax on alcoholic beverages.
• Enact a national handgun licensing and registration system operated by the states.
• Create financial incentives for communities to develop water fluoridation systems and create programs to increase the use of fluoride rinses and/or dental sealants among children.
• Create financial incentives for states to require daily physical education classes in secondary schools.
• Require that federal entitlement programs and the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program provide insurance coverage for the clinical preventive services recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, with ceilings on co-pays and deductibles.

These policy recommendations were in response to a request from the Congressional Prevention Coalition (CPC), a bipartisan and bicameral group of 60 lawmakers dedicated to preventing disease and promoting health. The CPC asked Partnership to identify the national policies with the greatest potential to prevent the most disease and injury. Partnership interviewed dozens of experts, searched the public health literature for evidence of policy effectiveness, and built a catalog of over 200 policy options. An advisory committee drawn from Partnership's board of directors then narrowed the list to the nine highest-impact polices.

Partnership for Prevention is a national membership association committed to increasing resources for and knowledge about effective disease prevention and health promotion policies and practices. Its membership includes leading groups in health, business and industry, professional and trade associations, and many state health departments.

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