Prevention Spending.

PREVENTION of obesity; PREVENTIVE health services; BUDGET; HEALTH promotion; MEDICAID; HEALTH policy; PUBLIC health; UNITED States. Dept. of Agriculture; UNITED States. Dept. of Health & Human Services; LIFESTYLES; PATIENT Protection & Affordable Care Act; ECONOMICS

The article offers the author's insights on the spending for the prevention of diseases in the U.S. in early 21st century. The author states that according to the Office of the Actuary, three percent of total national health expenditures are from public health activities, while the proportion of total prevention expenditures most often come from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service's (CMS) Office of the Actuary. She mentions that two basic data sources, such as annual budget documents and state and local government spending, are used to estimate the government public health activities. She adds that CMS seems to define prevention as budgets of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the state and local health departments.