RWJF Commission to Build a Healthier America

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation established the Commission to Build a Healthier America (CBHA) – a national, independent, non-partisan group of leaders with expertise both in and outside the health care field – in early 2008. The Commission was charged to 1.) raise awareness of how non-medical factors such as education, the social and physical environment, income and housing affect health and longevity and how the relationships between these factors and race or ethnic group create and exacerbate social disparities in health among Americans, and 2.) formulate and promote the adoption of promising private and public non-medical policies and interventions to improve health and reduce health disparities across social class, income, and racial and ethnic groups. The Commission held a series of field hearings, fact-finding visits and experts' meetings across the country to investigate non-medical interventions linked with measurable health improvements. In April 2009, the Commission will release recommendations on specific, feasible steps that foundations, corporations, communities, faith-based organizations and government at every level can take to improve health and reduce health disparities. This session will present and discuss the Commission's recommendations, the science base for the recommendations, efforts to build support for and implement the Commission's recommendations, and the RWJ Foundation's plans for future activities to support wide dissemination and ultimately implementation of the Commission's recommendations.