Shortchanging America's Health

April 29 2010

Shortchanging America's Health
A State-by-State Look at How Public Health Dollars Are Spent

INTRODUCTION
Where you live should not determine how healthy you are. But, right now in America, where you live, learn, work, and play make a big difference in how healthy you are. As a result, some communities are much healthier than others, according to a February 2010 report, “The County Health Rankings: Mobilizing Action toward Community Health,” by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the University of Wisconsin Public Health Institute.

A range of factors, like education, employment, income, family and social support, community safety, and the physical environment, impact our health. But in many communities, obstacles also exist that make it hard for people to make healthy choices, and consequently, disease rates are higher in those areas. For instance, if there is not a safe place for children to play in a neighborhood, it makes it difficult for them to get enough exercise, or if there is no accessible grocery store close by, it makes it a challenge to buy nutritious foods.

One big factor in the health of a community is whether or not they have a strong public health system. Public health departments can help improve the health of communities, since they are responsible for finding ways to address the systemic reasons why some communities are healthier than others – and for developing policies and programs to remove obstacles that get in the way of making healthy choices possible. ...

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Conclusion and Recommendations: Modernizing Public Health
With a renewed commitment to prevention and a revitalized public health system, we could spare millions of Americans from developing otherwise preventable diseases, reduce health costs by billions of dollars, and improve the productivity of the American workforce so it will be competitive with the rest of the world in today’s global economy.

But in order to achieve these goals, it will mean that the country cannot continue to practice public health as it has for the past several decades. We need to rethink our priorities, goals, and funding levels so they match today’s health challenges.

Provisions included in the health reform bills could help dramatically transform how public health is practiced in the United States, providing a framework for developing new strategies and significantly increased resources.

Regardless of increased funds or new legislation, there is an urgent need to modernize the public health system. The health reform debate identified a number of ways to address fundamental issues within the public health system so it can be changed to improve the health of Americans and so it can be more accountable for health outcomes. ...

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