The Danger and Opportunity of Health Care Reform for Health Promotion

Article Summary
Brooke Gilliland

Editor’s Notes
The Danger and Opportunity of Health Care Reform Providing a Huge Influx of Funds for Health Promotion…and How to Avert Danger
By: Michael P. O’Donnell, PhD, MBA, MPH
American Journal of Health Promotion, 2009;24[2]:iv

http://healthpromotionjournal.com/publications/journal/editors_notes_pdfs/ajhp-24-02-editornotes.pdf

This article was written by Michael P. O’Donnell who is Editor in Chief of the American Journal of Health Promotion.

Mr. O’Donnell begins by describing a conversation between himself and a friend that initially sounds sarcastic in nature. The friend, who apparently was in the private sector health promotion field, says that the last thing that he wants is for the federal government to invest large amounts of money in health promotion without first considering the consequences. Mr. O’Donnell’s initial reaction to this statement was the same as mine – confusion. After consideration, he reasoned that his friend was considering how the influx of the huge resources of the federal government could and would overwhelm the private health promotion industry. Such an influx of resources would in turn eventually result in job losses, business closures, and lower tax revenues. Also negatively affecting the government coffers would be increased payments for unemployment benefits. Eventually, these monetary losses could end up causing the government funded health promotion field to fail if that happened, he questioned, would the public be willing to pay for those previously ”free” services? Would there be any incentive for the private sector to reestablish itself in this sector? Mr. O’Donnell goes on to laud the private sector’s facility to provide innovative, cost-effective services above and beyond that of any governmental agency.

There is a description of the Health Promotion FIRST Act (2004) and its provision to advance the health promotion infrastructure in non-governmental organizations to avoid governmental competition or interference.

In conclusion, in order to achieve the most effective and beneficial use of all resources, Mr. O’Donnell stresses the importance of maintaining and nurturing the private sector’s contributions while adding the assets of the federal government in a non-competitive manner.