America’s health agenda for 2020 includes new topics and goals

America’s health agenda for 2020 is meant to whip us into shape in the next decade. So how effective will America’s health agenda be?

Of course it’s too soon to say. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday just rolled out the Healthy People 2020 objectives for more than 40 health categories – including new entries such as teen health and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender health.

The overarching goal, of course, is to get Americans to take steps that can help prevent chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes that account for 7 of 10 deaths, the federal agency said in a statement.

And the agency’s preliminary figures for the last decade show that America “has either progressed toward or met 71 percent of its Healthy People targets.”

Really? That makes us feel better, but there’s still much to be done. Check out Healthy People 2020’s website and sign up for the monthly updates.