The health care reform establishes a Prevention and Public Health Fund, starting with a $500 million dollar appropriation in 2010, rising to $2 billion per year starting in 2015.  How should this money be spent?  Robert Gould (President & CEO, Partnership for Prevention) thinks it should target one major health issue, rather than being spread ineffectually across many worthy causes.  His pick:  tobacco.  He puts his case forward in Kaiser Health News.

Is he right?  What about other critical population health issues like obesity?  Should the fund concentrate on one issue at a time?  And if so, how do we know when that issue is "fixed", so that we can move on to the next big need?

What do you think?