Health Care Reform Debate Is Overlooking The Real Story: Legislation Should Focus On Reducing Costs by Preventing and Curing Disease

October 26, 2009

Available for Interviews: Lou Weisbach and Dr. Richard Boxer, Co-Creators of a Revolutionary Concept - The American Center for Cures (ACC) Initiative

CHICAGO, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- ADVISORY: As lawmakers debate health care reform, business innovator Lou Weisbach and Clinton White House health care advisor Dr. Richard Boxer are available for interviews to discuss a glaring, missing element of the forthcoming health care legislation: reducing health care costs -- and saving lives -- by preventing and curing disease.

The chilling reality is that the percentage of Americans who die of cancer today is unchanged from 1950. There is nothing in current health care reform legislation that provides for real change in the way we approach health care in our country.

Weisbach and Boxer want to change that: they are co-creators of The American Center for Cures (ACC) initiative, which proposes that a "Manhattan Project" or "Moon Shot"-like urgency be applied to cure or prevent disease. Their idea is revolutionary: the creation of The ACC -- led by a cabinet-level Director of the Cures -- housed within the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The ACC's mission: to cure a minimum of three diseases within the next seven years.

The ACC concept has support from numerous lawmakers and health care experts, as well as citizens who are signing a petition at www.americancenterforcures.org to have the initiative included in health care reform legislation.

Weisbach and Boxer can discuss the following topics:

    --  Chronic diseases affect more than 110 million Americans.
    --  Chronic disease care accounts for nearly 75% of the more than $2.1
        trillion spent on health care in the U.S.
    --  The ACC will create a unified, global mission to cure disease.
    --  Each disease of focus will have a CEO accountable for a cure.

    --  Diseases for focus -- chosen by a "Cures Council" -- may likely focus on
        Alzheimer's, Autism, various types of cancer, Crohn's disease,
        depression, Diabetes, Epilepsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's, and
        genetic diseases of childhood (such as Cystic Fibrosis).

For more information on The American Center for Cures, please visit www.americancenterforcures.org.

About Lou Weisbach

Lou Weisbach is a Founding Partner of Chicago-based Stadium Capital Financing Group (SCFG), a majority-owned entity of Morgan Stanley Principal Investments. SCFG has a proprietary financing methodology, Equity Seat Rights (R), or ESR(TM). Previously, Weisbach was Founder and Chief Executive Officer of HA-LO Advertising Specialties. Established in 1972, the company became the largest marketer and distributor of promotional products in the world. Mr. Weisbach also has long been involved with a number of local and national charitable organizations.

About Dr. Richard Boxer

Richard Boxer, M.D. is a Professor of Clinical Urology at the University of Miami. He is also a Clinical Professor at the University of Wisconsin and the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Boxer was a two-time finalist for U.S. Surgeon General (under both the William J. Clinton and George W. Bush administrations) and served on President Clinton's Task Force on Health Reform. In addition, Dr. Boxer has served on the National Cancer Advisory Board and the Board for the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. He was a U.S. Delegate to the World Health Organization

SOURCE The American Center For Cures Initiative