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A commission formed to research alternative means to lowering healthcare costs said it will look at strategies such as better preventative care during its first meeting at GW.

“The commission will spend the next two years looking for strategies to

lower health costs by promoting habits such as exercise, better nutrition and preventive care,” wrote former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, one of the commission’s most prominent members, in an e-mail. “Pursuing these approaches helps ensure all Americans, regardless of factors like race and income, have access to quality, affordable healthcare.”

Mark McClellan and Alice Rivlin, who are both affiliated with the Brookings Institution, chair the Commission to Build a Healthier America. Linda Dillman, executive vice president of benefits and risk management for Wal-Mart, is another prominent commission member. Forbes Magazine has named her on its “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” list for the past five years.

The commission aims to focus on preventative healthcare issues in order to help those without health insurance avoid high healthcare costs in the future. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation appointed the commission’s 14 members, a group that also includes some GW professors of public health.

Wilhemine Miller, a health policy professor and an adviser to the commission, said the commission aims to develop bipartisan recommendations for improving the healthcare system.

“The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is the biggest philanthropy devoted to health and healthcare in the United States and has been very active in healthcare reform, health care improvement, and emergency services in communities (across the country)” Miller said of the commission’s benefactor.

The commission focuses on promotion of healthy lifestyles because politicians agree the country’s healthcare system is failing, even if they do not agree on how to fix it. Its members hope to identify steps individuals can take to avoid the system all together.

“So much of how we get sick in the first place is a function of our education, our families’ income and wealth and the behaviors that we adopt that are supported by the communities we live in, such as smoking, drinking and eating habits,” Miller said. “These are all really essential for good health, particularly in children.”

The commission is the first of its kind to take such a broad look at what will improve Americans’ health overall. Commission members will meet at GW for the next two years.