What Would Health Care Look Like if Health Were Truly a Priority?

BOSTON, July 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republicans continue to try to push their version of health-care policy through the Senate, 30-year career environmental consultant Ellen Moyer, Ph.D., says America is nowhere near a solution to putting health back into health care. Moreover, she points out, the U.S.'s current unaffordable health-care system focuses too much on treating disease after allowing it to happen rather than on preventing disease from occurring in the first place.

In Our Earth, Our Species, Our Selves: How to Thrive While Creating a Sustainable World, her third book, Moyer draws a strong connection between government policies and public health. For example, taxpayer-funded food subsidies are primarily used to promote junk food that makes us sick rather than foods that make us healthy. Meanwhile, she says such government agencies as the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture end up protecting industry from citizens rather than citizens from industry. In addition, she notes that "doctors are rewarded for doing as much as possible rather than for providing the best care possible."

Moyer maintains that the U.S. would promote health and reduce health-care costs by taking actions such as these:

• Plant gardens at schools and educate students about nutrition, cooking, and health.
• Verify synthetic chemicals are safe before putting them in commercial use.
• Stop burning fossil fuels, biofuels and wastes, to prevent air pollution and help the climate.
• Prevent water pollution.
• Reduce industry influence on food and medicine.

"Doing all this and more would reduce health-care costs and free up money that could be used for education, research, the arts, and environmental conservation and restoration," Moyer says.

About the author

Ellen Moyer is a registered professional engineer with a B.A. in anthropology, an M.S. in environmental engineering, a Ph.D. in civil engineering, and 30 years of environmental engineering experience. She is also a U.S. Green Building Council LEED accredited professional. Our Earth, Our Species, Our Selves: How to Thrive While Creating a Sustainable World quickly became Amazon's No. 1 "Hot New Release" in the categories of Green Business, Nature Conservation, and Environmentalism and an Amazon bestseller.

Availability: Massachusetts, nationwide by arrangement and via telephone

Contact: Ellen Moyer, (413) 862-3452; 168271@email4pr.com, www.ellenmoyerphd.com

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