On June 10, 2010, in order to increase the effectiveness of the health care system in the United States, President Obama signed the Executive Order 13544 to establish the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council.
As a unit at the federal level, the council was set up to develop strategies to provide the most effective and achievable means of improving the health status of the American people as well as to prevent and minimize patients suffering from preventable illness and disabilities.
Another mission of the Council is to inform the President and Congress any important and relevant issues relating to health care in the country so that the executive and legislative branches can make wise decisions.
“The National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council (National Prevention Council), called for by the Affordable Care Act, provides coordination and leadership at the federal level and among all executive agencies regarding prevention, wellness, and health promotion practices. It is composed of Cabinet-level officers from 17 diverse federal agencies and departments to devise policies for disease prevention. It is chaired by the Surgeon General
Dr. Elizabeth Rigby of the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation says, “The Prevention Council is an exciting step forward because it acknowledges what RWJF and the Health & Society Scholars program have been advancing for some time: that health is not just a function of health care or genetics, but also of the broader society in which we live, a society that the government and other institutions are involved in structuring.” Moreover, she says, the Prevention Council “really institutionalizes that acknowledgement with respect to the federal government by focusing on disease prevention not just at the Department of Health and Human Services, but at other agencies, too.”