Officials have informed that the U. S. government has allocated $250 million for fiscal year 2010 for several health prevention programs.

Surgeon General Regina Benjamin said in a statement, "Our current healthcare system leaves many Americans without the preventive care that stops disease and illness before they start. What we need is an approach to healthcare that keeps people from getting sick in the first place, and that addresses the underlying drivers of chronic disease."

Benjamin further added that under the Affordable Care Act, a Prevention and Public Health Fund was designed to help create the infrastructure to prevent disease, detect it early and manage conditions before they become severe, and more costly.

The $250 million is being allocated out of which $126 million will support federal, state and community prevention initiatives; the integration of primary care services into publicly-funded community-based behavioral health settings; obesity prevention and fitness; and tobacco cessation, $70 million will support state, local and tribal public health infrastructure to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks, $31 million for data collection and analysis and to improve transparency and public involvement in the Clinical Preventive Services Task Force and the remaining $23 million to expand Center's and Disease Control and Prevention's public health workforce programs and public health training centers. (With inputs from Agencies)