I 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5511 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to require that the recommendations 

of the United States Preventive Services Task Force on the effectiveness, 

appropriateness, and cost-effectiveness of clinical preventive services be 

based on data for the respective populations, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 13, 2018 

Mr. EVANS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to require that 

the recommendations of the United States Preventive 

Services Task Force on the effectiveness, appropriateness, and cost-effectiveness of clinical preventive services 

be based on data for the respective populations, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Healthy Communities 

5 Act of 2018’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) Despite marked reductions in health dis4 parities following the enactment of the Affordable 

5 Care Act (Public Law 111–148), racial and ethnic 

6 disparities in medical status and access to health 

7 care persist in the United States. 

8 (2) According to the Centers for Disease Con9 trol, from 2010 to 2014, breast cancer mortality was 

10 41 percent higher among African-American women 

11 than White women. 

12 (3) According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 

13 among individuals in the United States who are over 

14 65 years of age, African-American individuals are 

15 about twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s disease, 

and Hispanic individuals are about 11 16 ⁄2 times as 

17 likely as White individuals. 

18 (4) The National Institutes of Health finds that 

19 African Americans, despite making up 13 percent of 

20 the population of the United States, account for 

21 about 35 percent of individuals with kidney failure 

22 in the United States. 

23 (5) According to research published in the 

24 Journal Frontiers in Bioscience, in the United 

25 States, African American men are 1.6 times as likely 


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1 to develop, and 2 times as likely to die from, pros2 tate cancer when compared to White men. 

3 (6) Underutilization of preventive health serv4 ices remains a barrier to reducing the chronic dis5 ease burden in the United States, particularly 

6 among racial and ethnic minorities. 

7 (7) The Surgeon General of the Public Health 

8 Service has stated that ‘‘Reducing disparities in 

9 health will give everyone a chance to live a healthy 

10 life and improve the quality of life for all Ameri11 cans.’’. 

12 SEC. 3. BASING RECOMMENDATIONS OF UNITED STATES 

13 PREVENTIVE SERVICES TASK FORCE ON 

14 DATA FOR THE RESPECTIVE POPULATIONS. 

15 Section 915(a) of the Public Health Service Act (42 

16 U.S.C. 299b–4(a)) is amended by adding at the end the 

17 following new paragraph: 

18 ‘‘(8) BASING RECOMMENDATIONS ON DATA FOR

19 RESPECTIVE POPULATIONS.—In making and updat20 ing recommendations on the effectiveness, appro21 priateness, and cost-effectiveness of clinical preven22 tive services, as described in paragraph (1), the 

23 Task Force shall base such recommendations on 

24 data for the respective populations, including health 


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1 disparity populations (as defined in section 464z– 

2 3(d)).’’. 

Æ 


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