235: Public Health is Underfunded

ROBERT JOHNSON:

This is Public Health Review Morning Edition for Friday, August 5th, 2022. I'm Robert Johnson.

Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

1. NADINE GRACIA:

The report found that the funding for the public health system really hasn't kept up with the public health needs of the nation.

JOHNSON:

Dr. J. Nadine Gracia, president and CEO of Trust for America's Health, talking about the organization's latest report, addressing the impact of chronic underfunding on the nation's public health system.

GRACIA:

We are calling for, along with many other public health organizations, $4.5 billion annual funding to support public health infrastructure. That will help modernize the public health data systems and our surveillance systems. That will help support recruiting, hiring, maintaining public health workforce, for example.

JOHNSON:

Gracia says emergency funding allocated during the pandemic has helped, but she wants Congress to break the cycle of boom-and-bust spending on vital health programs.

GRACIA:

We are calling for increasing, for example, CDC's overall annual program funding to be $11 billion because of growing health needs, whether it's chronic disease, behavioral health, infectious disease, environmental health, and climate change. We're just having growing rates of these types of public health needs and threats, but yet our public health funding isn't really needing those needs and resources

JOHNSON:

And Gracia's bottom line.

GRACIA:

These investments that we make in public health, the public health system, are going pay for themselves in terms of saving lives and preventing illness and injury.

JOHNSON:

You can download the report using the link in the show notes.

As the Americans with Disabilities Act celebrates 32 years this year, many jurisdictions are thinking of ways to use COVID-19 relief funding to help those living with disabilities. Last year, HHS recognized long COVID as a disability. Learn how Illinois, Tennessee, New Jersey, and others are helping impacted communities in a new ASTHO blog article. Read it using the link in show notes.

Also this morning, hundreds of public health professionals learned more about health equity equity at an ASTHO summit held online last month. Pennsylvania's acting health secretary Dr. Denise Johnson was there. What was her biggest takeaway?

DENISE JOHNSON:

We all learned from the pandemic that we really need to be more purposeful in our relationship with our community partners and that we need to work together to be able to move a lot of our initiatives forward

ROBERT JOHNSON:

Attendees, according to Johnson, are ready to turn summit lessons into action at home.

DENISE JOHNSON:

We are more focused now on initiatives that begin in the community; so, recruiting members within the community to work in public health and also to carry out some of the functions that are public health. We are recruiting from within those communities and developing those individuals and moving them forward, giving them opportunities for advancement.

ROBERT JOHNSON:

You can register to watch recordings of the presentations online. The deadline to sign up is Wednesday, August 10th. There's a link in the show notes.

Finally today, ASTHO has a new speakers bureau ready to help you find a speaker for your next public health event. State and territorial health officials and members of the ASTHO leadership team are available to connect with your audience. Get more information using the link in the show notes.

That'll do it for today's newscast. We're back Monday morning with more ASTHO news and information.

I'm Robert Johnson. You're listening to Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great weekend.