Johnson Foundation convenes committee to improve health of Americans

WASHINGTON The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has announced the formation of a new group called the Commission to Build a Healthier America. The commission will focus on factors outside the health care system and identify non-medical, evidence-based strategies—short- and long-term—to improve the health of Americans.

The group will investigate how factors, such as education, environment, income and housing, shape and affect personal behavioral choices through an extensive inquiry that will include regional field hearings.

Mark McClellan, the director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at The Brookings Institution and former FDA commissioner and administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Alice Rivlin, senior economist at the Brookings Institution and former director of the Office of Management and Budget, will chair the two-year commission.

“For reasons that don’t appear to have much to do with health care, there is a big gap between how healthy we are and how healthy we could be,” said McClellan. “In fact, in some respects, wealthy Americans appear to be less healthy than middle income citizens of England. The commission will investigate practical strategies being developed and implemented around the country, in the public and private sectors, to strengthen our health and close the gap.”