The Latest Research, Commentary, And News From Health Affairs
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
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Dear John,
Although public health funding allows communities to respond to
COVID-19 and other complex health threats, new research shows public health funding has not increased in over a decade.
Flat Or Negative Trends In Public Health Spending Leading Up To COVID-19
Low levels of public health funding, and public health funding disparities between states, can impact the ability of state and local agencies to address complex health threats like a pandemic.
They observed flat or downward trends for total state public health spending and for spending in each of the categories of public health activities, except for an increase in spending for injury prevention. Maternal, child, and family health saw the largest drop in spending of all the categories.
The authors point out, “This stagnation in public health spending occurred despite a 4.3 percent annual average rise in national health care expenditures for disease care and overall annual average economic growth of 3.3 percent during the same
period.”
Visit our entire April 2021 issue for content about the Affordable Care Act, spending, and more.
In a new Health Affairs Blog post, Nora D. Volkow of the National Institute on Drug Abuse discusses how drug criminalization harms communities of color, and how a public health approach to drug addiction is critical for both population well-being and health equity.
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Should Social Risks Factor Into Health Care Quality Measures?
Listen to Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interview David Nerenz from the Henry Ford Health System about social risk factors and their controversial inclusion as a measure of health care quality.
Health Affairs is the leading peer-reviewedjournalat the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Published monthly by Project HOPE, the journal is
available in print and online. Late-breaking content is also found through healthaffairs.org, Health Affairs Today, and Health Affairs Sunday Update.
Project HOPE is a global health and humanitarian relief organization that places power in the hands of local health care workers to save lives across the globe. Project HOPE has published Health Affairs since 1981.
