Health Promotion White Paper

S.1001 Health Promotion FIRST Act

The Health Promotion FIRST Act of 2009 was introduced on May 7, 2009 by Senator Lugar with co-sponsor Senator Jeff Bingaman. It was read twice by the Senate Committee and then referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). S.1001 was developed to amend the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop a plan for health promotion. This plan requests that other federal agencies, including The National Institute of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC), develop strategic plans for healthy promotion.

I choose this bill because I think it is so important that specific steps be outlined for everyone to ensure good health and quality of life. I do not feel that only the insured are worthy of good health promotion but it should be for all Americans. However, in many cases this is not the case. The services are not disseminated and provided to rural or low-income communities.

This bill could go hand-in-hand with the new health care reform bill. If we as a country identify, through government and other federal agencies, the importance of healthy promotion to all then we as a country would be able to decrease over all costs of health care.

Once strategic plans are in place then it is up to these agencies to pass down these plans to all communities, professional and individuals in order for this bill to be effective.

We know that nurses are the largest occupational group among health care professionals and I believe that nurses could be the influence to change the health practices and promotions for many Americans.

Annotated Bibliography

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2009). Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Retrieved on June 10, 2010, from http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/overview/index.htm.

The CDC has created the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP)....