What do you think policymakers should focus on to reduce health disparities?
We are what we eat, so lets work on prevention and education. However, focusing on these is not a smart business tactic, right now. There might be a way for the public to afford to pay health care's treatment sector as well as its prevention sector and do it without getting into debt. It is like paying for two leases on an apartment while moving from one to another.
With an ever increasing number of fast-food restaurants, and certain chains, like McDonald's making record profits, it seems that public health professionals are temporarily losing ground on the battle to make the public healthy. But what could we do in these difficult economic times. It wouldn't be American to simply thumb down an industry, even if its slowly killing the people who buy into it, ("got ciggs?"). But what if policymakers tweak the market so that prevention is a buisness asset instead of a liability? I don't claim to be an economics expert but I think that the best way to reduce health disparities is to create a market that benefits businesses to encourage public "healthiness." Lets ride the free-market wave so that fast-food restaurants could not resist preparing healthier foods or small business owners see a real benefit to have health employees. We could drastically cut back on morbidity, cut back on hospital usage, and on prescription drugs. This method has to work, right? Free market is the American way and its high time the public health industry realizes this is the key.