Any new bill that greatly extends health insurance coverage but does nothing to implement a national prevention and wellness agenda would fail the American people, US senator Tom Harkin argued at a conference on public health in Washington, DC, on 25-27 February.

He castigated the current US healthcare system for spending “trillions for surgery, pills, hospitalisation, and disability, but peanuts for prevention—less than 5 cents on the dollar.”

He told the …