{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/king-bipartisan-group-of-colleagues-reintroduce-bill-to-prioritize-preventive-healthcare_", "King, Bipartisan Group of Colleagues Reintroduce Bill to Prioritize Preventive Healthcare", "2017-11-29", "2017", "2017-11", "Independent", "House", "ME", "Angus King", "K000383", "www.king.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "King, Bipartisan Group of Colleagues Reintroduce Bill to Prioritize Preventive Healthcare  \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWednesday, November 29, 2017\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWASHINGTON, D.C.\u00a0\u2013 U.S. Senators Angus King (I-Maine), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Ben Cardin (D-Maryland), along with Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) today reintroduced\u00a0the\u00a0Preventive Health Savings Act,\u00a0legislation that would direct the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to more accurately reflect the cost-savings of preventive healthcare, including health screenings.\r\n\u201cCongress has recently spent a lot of time debating the best methods of paying for healthcare, and for good reason: the American people rely on this care to live happy, healthy lives,\u201d said Senator King. \u201cBut these recent discussions don\u2019t address the underlying problem of overall healthcare spending. Regardless of who is writing the check, the current trajectory of healthcare spending is unsustainable. We need to make the most of options like preventive care, which is proven to control costs and improve the overall health of communities. By ensuring that future Congressional Budget Office studies extend beyond the existing ten-year budget window, this bill will help us fully understand the long-term benefits and maximize the impact of preventive care to improve overall health, in Maine and across the country.\u201d\r\n\u201cThis bipartisan legislation is a simple fix that will allow the Congressional Budget Office to capture the long-term savings that can be achieved through preventive health care, arming lawmakers with more accurate information when considering legislation to improve health care system,\u201d said Senator Crapo.\r\n\u201cPrevention and early detection through cancer screenings, counseling, and immunization all lower healthcare costs by reducing the severity of disease. As a nation, we spend far more on the treatment of disease than we do on preventive health. But our neglect of prevention has been costly, overwhelming our healthcare budgets, particularly Medicare and Medicaid,\u201d said Senator Cardin. \u201cRe-evaluating our budget rules is not a new phenomenon. As our nation shifts its focus to more preventive healthcare, our budgets and accounting methods should shift too.\u201d\r\n\u201cPreventive health care has been proven time and time again to save lives and dramatically lower costs, and that is an investment that is well worth making,\u201d Senator Udall said. \u201cThis bill will ensure that lawmakers have that information at their fingertips to help make better decisions about these programs in the future.\u201d\r\n\u201cThe Preventive Health Savings Act recognizes the importance of preventing chronic diseases and promoting behavioral health,\u201d said LaShawn McIver, MD, MPH and Senior Vice President of Government Affairs & Advocacy at the American Diabetes Association. \u201cWe know that lifestyle support programs such as the National Diabetes Prevention Program lead to significant cost-savings that extend beyond the Congressional Budget Office\u2019s traditional scoring window of 10 years. Evaluating cost-savings further into the future, as would be allowed by the Preventive Health Savings Act, will provide a more comprehensive appraisal of critical programs that promote wellness and disease prevention, while reducing health care costs and overall spending, and thus improving the lives of millions of Americans.\u201d\r\nThe American Diabetes Association is one of 120 organizations that have expressed support for the Preventative Health Savings Act. November is National Diabetes Awareness Month, and the disease is one of the leading chronic diseases causing death and disability in the United States.\r\nAccording to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), efforts to treat chronic diseases account for over 80 percent of America\u2019s health care costs. \u00a0Preventive care \u2013 such as health screenings, shots, and lab tests \u2013 can help prevent chronic disease and ultimately lead to savings in health care costs.\r\nUnder current law, however, the CBO does not take into account the long-term cost-savings associated with preventive health initiatives.\u00a0The Preventive Health Savings Act\u00a0would direct the CBO to more accurately reflect the cost-savings of preventive health care legislation by allowing Congressional Committees \u2013 including the Budget; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; Finance; Ways and Means; and Energy and Commerce Committees \u2013 to request an analysis of preventive measures extending beyond the existing 10-year budget window to two additional 10-year periods.\r\nBy allowing the CBO to widen its budget window to better capture the costs-savings from preventive care, the legislation\u00a0encourages a sensible review of health policy in order to promote public health and incentivizes Congress to invest in proven methods of saving lives and money.\u200e\r\nSenators King, Crapo and Cardin originally introduced the bill in 2013, and reintroduced the bill in 2016.\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/king-bipartisan-group-of-colleagues-reintroduce-bill-to-prioritize-preventive-healthcare_"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7726908661425114, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}