Ultimately, it’s the health status of citizens that drives much of per-capita spending.

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—	Dan Crippen, executive director of the National Governors Association Healthcare spending in Wisconsin 6% above national average

Since health care is a massive expense for government and the private sector, a reduction in chronic disease and overall health spending would help the finances of industry and government.

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—	Marcella Gutierrez, a certified Physician Assistant from Onalaska, WI Wisconsin State Journal: Disease prevention the best investment

Wisconsin 1 of 10 States Awarded

Chronic Disease Prevention Grant

Today the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) awarded more than $85 million in grants over 5 years to 10 States (Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York, Nevada, New Hampshire, Montana, Hawaii, Texas, California and Connecticut). This grant will encourage Medicaid beneficiaries of all ages to participate in chronic disease prevention programs and take active steps to improve their health.

The idea is simple. Healthy behaviors decrease chronic illness and therefore Medicaid costs. Let’s incentivize the Medicaid population to be healthier! Efforts to decrease tobacco use and increase nutrition and physical activity will save us all money.

If health insurers can no longer keep people with chronic diseases out of their patient pools, it stands to reason that the companies will develop a keener interest in preventing those diseases.

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Micheal Pollen in The New York Review of Books (June 2010)

“They will then discover that they have a large stake in things like soda taxes and in precisely which kinds of calories the farm bill is subsidizing. As the insurance industry and the government take on more responsibility for the cost of treating expensive and largely preventable problems like obesity and type 2 diabetes, pressure for reform of the food system, and the American diet, can be expected to increase.”

Perhaps the food movement’s strongest claim on public attention today is the fact that the American diet of highly processed food laced with added fats and sugars is responsible for the epidemic of chronic diseases that threatens to bankrupt the health care system.

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—	Michael Pollan from The New York Review of Books “The Food Movement, Rising” (June 2010)

[Soda tax would] help reduce long-term health care spending to treat obesity-related illnesses – including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and stroke.

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—	Alice Rivlin, former White House Budget Director New York Times (11.16.10): “Taxing Soda to Close the Deficit”

Better health means redoubling our efforts at disease prevention all during people’s lives. If we cannot reduce the rate of childhood obesity now, we will see increased rates of chronic diseases later as they age.

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—	Dr Patrick Remington, UW-Madison School of Medicine & Public Health Racine Journal Times [10.27.10]