Dive Brief:
- A new report published in the American Journal of Public Health finds U.S. public health funding has been decreasing over recent years and is projected to keep going down.
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While the share of U.S. health spending that went toward public health increased from 1960 to 2002, from 1.36% to 3.18%, it then dropped again by 2014 to 2.65%.
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The share of public health spending is projected to keep falling to 2.4% by 2023, the report estimated.
Dive Insight:
The drop may seem counterintuitive, considering the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was meant to provide $15 billion for public health funding, noted researchers Dr. David Himmelstein and Dr. Steffie Woolhandler of the City University of New York School of Public Health at Hunter College.
However, they point out, that did not come to pass as a result of a 2012 law that reduced the ACA’s prevention and public health fund by $6.25 billion, as well as other legislative actions that chipped at the funds.
As a result, public health appropriations for FY 2015 were cut by more than half of what was originally intended.
“More resources need to go to public health programs that prevent illness, rather than just waiting for people to get sick,” Woolhandler told Reuters.
On the other hand, public policy researcher Arleen Leibowitz of the University of California Los Angeles, who wasn’t involved in the study, told Reuters some of the slack is being made up by ACA requirements where insurers cover some public health services such as vaccinations.
“We can expect public health spending to account for a smaller share of total health expenditure in the future because the ACA will increase private health spending,” she said.