CDRP director Elbert Huang urged policymakers to find common ground by focusing on ways to support initiatives like the CDC’s National Diabetes Prevention Program and HRSA’s Health Center Program that both improve healthcare and lower costs in the LA Times article, “A pivotal senator says he extracted vaccine concessions from RFK Jr. How will that play out?” on February 9, 2025.

Below, Huang elaborates on these and other programs under the purview of the US Department of Health and Human Services that are especially important targets of investment because they have demonstrated successful improvement of health at reasonable cost:

• The National Diabetes Prevention Program which is run by the Centers for Disease Control is a network of lifestyle coaches that deliver a diet and exercise program studied in the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) trial. The DPP cut the risk of developing diabetes in half and saved Medicare money. Investing in lifestyle programs like the National Diabetes Prevention Program will help shift our focus towards chronic disease prevention and away from chronic disease management.

• The Inflation Reduction Act allows Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies. Saving money for Medicare and the millions of older adults who rely on Medicare would be a win-win.

• The Health Center Program which is run by the Health Resources Services Administration is the nation’s primary care safety net, made up of over 1300 Health Centers in every part of the United States. These Health Centers not only provide life changing preventive services, chronic disease management, and behavioral health services and also cost less than care provided by private clinics and hospital- based clinics, as shown by the CDRP’s three-year analysis of the HRSA Health Center Program. Investing in the Health Center Program can improve health and lower costs.