Health reform, prevention and health promotion: milestone moment on a long journey.

摘要

While most reporting on the recent national health reform debate in the United States emphasized the new law's expansion of coverage, efforts at cost containment, requirement to purchase insurance (with subsidies for patients needing help), and new federal regulation of the insurance industry, some of the most important long-term impacts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 20101 may spring from less-noticed provisions, particularly those focused on prevention, health promotion and integrative care. Prevention has two major components. The first, early disease detection, is addressed in the new law with provisions requiring both private and public insurance plans to cover-with no payments required from patients-all screening methods rated A or B by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. This includes dozens of procedures ranging from blood pressure and lipid level monitoring to tests for colorectal cancer and sexually transmitted diseases.