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Established in 1998 following a tobacco industry lawsuit

Blue Cross created The Center for Tobacco Reduction and Health Improvement (The Center) in 1998 after settlement of the landmark lawsuit brought by Blue Cross and the State of Minnesota against the tobacco industry. In 2005 the Center was renamed the Center for Prevention. The Center oversees Prevention Minnesota.

A single focus: tackle Minnesota’s leading killers

Blue Cross' Prevention Minnesota initiative has a single focus: To tackle Minnesota’s leading killers by targeting tobacco use, heart disease and preventable cancer. Why? Because they kill or disable more Minnesotans than anything else. Success requires both individual and community efforts to change awareness, attitudes and behaviors.

Starting with the causes of disease

It makes sense to concentrate on root causes — the factors that lead to these preventable diseases. We see both tremendous need and opportunity to address tobacco use and physical inactivity, the leading causes of preventable death. Prevention Minnesota's four goals address these root causes:

• Smoking causes heart disease, cancer and other serious illnesses and is linked to more than 5,600 deaths statewide each year [1].
• Secondhand smoke contributes to the deaths from heart disease of 46,000 nonsmokers in the U.S. each year.  An additional 3,000 nonsmokers die each year from lung cancer caused by exposure to secondhand smoke.[2]
• Physical inactivity and unhealthy eating combined contribute to obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Together, they are the second leading cause of preventable death and disease in the U.S.[3]

Prevention Minnesota's individual and community health interventions address such challenges on behalf of all Minnesotans.

January 2006 launch

On January 23, 2006 then Blue Cross CEO Mark W. Banks, M.D. delivered an address entitled "Prevention--Investing in the Health of Minnesota" at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs on the University of Minnesota campus. This event, co-sponsored by the Humphrey Institute, marked the formal introduction of Prevention Minnesota.

Banks announced that Blue Cross was committing $241 million to Prevention Minnesota, a prevention-focused initiative to help Minnesota become a healthier place to live and work over the next decade and beyond.

"It is critical that prevention becomes a part of a meaningful health reform agenda," explained Banks. "If Minnesota does not make a commitment to prevention, we will never achieve the goals of a more affordable, more accessible health care system."

Endnotes

1. Minnesota Department of Health. Smoking-attributable Mortality and Economic Costs in Minnesota. Feb. 2002. Available online at www.health.state.mn.us/divs/
2. California Environmental Protection Agency.  Proposed Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant.  2005.
3. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Physical Activity and Good Nutrition: Essential Elements to Prevent Chronic Diseases and Obesity. 2004. Available online at www.cdc.gov/