A Prevention Prescription for Improving Health and Health Care in America

In 2014, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) convened a Prevention Task Force to focus on opportunities for investing in prevention as a way to improve health outcomes and reduce health care costs. The task force included a diverse group of experts to review the evidence on prevention and to frame a strategy for better integrating prevention in the nation’s approach to health and health care.

Fundamentally, there is growing recognition that prevention—delivered correctly—holds vast potential to improve health at the individual and population level, while also reducing national spending on health care. Better health is an important goal in and of itself, with benefits—in productivity, longevity, wellbeing, and quality of life—that extend to all levels of society, from individuals and families to communities, businesses, and government. Of course, not all prevention strategies will be effective, and not all health improvements will result in cost savings. But prevention clearly has a role to play in advancing several widely shared objectives of current health care reform efforts.