Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease Announces 'Ideas for Change' in H...( WASHINGTON Sept. 25 -- The Partn...),Health

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD) announced today its "Ideas for Change" in health care, which call on all 2008 presidential candidates to address the country's chronic disease crisis in their health care plans.

"Health care reform will be the most important domestic issue in the upcoming election," said PFCD Executive Director Ken Thorpe, Ph.D. and Professor and Chair of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. "We want all presidential candidates to consider our ideas for change as they solidify and provide greater detail of their health care proposals. While we are encouraged that most candidates who have released health care reform plans included ideas for fighting chronic disease, more needs to be done."

Chronic disease is the primary driver of health care costs in America:

-- More than 75 cents of every dollar we spend on health care is due to

treatment of patients with chronic disease;

-- Chronic disease is responsible for seven out of every 10 deaths in

the United States;

-- About two-thirds of the rise in health care spending over the past

two decades is due to the rise in the prevalence of treated

chronic disease;

-- Only 56 percent of those with chronic disease receive clinically

appropriate care.

The PFCD's "Ideas for Change" policy platform outlines the need for improvement in chronic disease prevention, detection, and management, and provides recommendations for how to address this devastating epidemic.

"The Partnership will not endorse a party or a candidate, but rather challenge all of them to address our nation's health and health care costs through the improved prevention, treatment and management of chronic disease. By acting now, we can lower costs and, most importantly, improve our quality of life," said Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D, PFCD Advisory Board member and Dir
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