URGENT: Prevention Fund and Medicare doc fix

This urgent action is from our allies at Trust for America's Health.

At this point we’ve probably all heard the rumors that the Prevention and Public Health Fund is likely to be used to offset the Medicare doc fix in the extenders package. However the deal is not yet done and it is still possible that we can at least lessen the size of the rumored cut (currently rumored at $5 billion over 10 years).

Time is of the essence if we want to make a difference. Please, activate your grassroots (we’re urging folks to use the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121) and make any calls you can from here in Washington NOW on behalf of your organization targeted to Leadership (with a focus on Sens. Reid and Baucus and Leader Pelosi) and express your opposition to cutting the Fund. Key points to make:

• Support the Prevention and Public Health Fund and oppose any efforts to reduce, eliminate or divert its funding to pay for the Medicare doc fix. Cutting a critical, overdue investment that bends the cost curve on chronic diseases, including the obesity epidemic, is penny-wise and pound foolish.

• It is counterintuitive to cut prevention to pay for medical care. It’s the opposite approach to what is needed to help bend the cost curve. Chronic diseases are driving the increase in Medicare costs, accounting for 70 percent of all deaths and 75 percent of all Medicare spending.