AdvaMed Helps Battle Chronic Disease

NEWS TRENDS

AdvaMed president and CEO Stephen Ubl has joined the advisory board of Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD), an organization working to increase awareness of chronic disease nationwide. The group is composed of leaders from the healthcare, business policy, and labor sectors who want to make chronic disease a key issue in the 2008 presidential election.

“As the national healthcare debate heats up, we must focus on measures to address chronic disease—the primary driver of rising health costs,” Ubl said in a statement. “The goals of the coalition align with our recently released healthcare reform plan, which would finance expanded coverage for all Americans with savings generated from preventive health, quality and efficiency improvements, and measures to speed the pace of medical innovation.”

More than 40 organizations have joined the PFCD campaign, which is seeking to raise awareness particularly in key primary states such as Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. The partnership is spearheaded by Richard Carmona, MD, a former U.S. surgeon general, and Ken Thorpe, PhD, a former White House health policy adviser.

“We look forward to tapping AdvaMed members' vast knowledge and substantial resources in making chronic disease the number one healthcare priority in the 2008 presidential election,” said Thorpe, PFCD's executive director.

Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta) show that chronic diseases are responsible for seven out of every 10 deaths in the United States, resulting in more than 1.7 million American deaths annually. Healthcare costs related to chronic diseases account for more than 75% of the $2 trillion dollars spent on healthcare in the United States each year.

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