Years of underfunding has hurt the ability of the nation’s public health system to prepare for public health emergencies and address the growing burden of chronic disease, a report from Trust for America’s Health finds.

Despite greater public attention to public health work during the COVID-19 pandemic, federal funding remains lower than what is needed to combat the nation’s many public health threats, according to the August report. Health programs at the state, local and federal levels are feeling the impact.

Much of federal public health funding is allocated to state and local health departments through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, CDC’s budget for the 2024 fiscal year is 3% less than the previous fiscal year, when accounting for inflation. And funding had improved little prior to that. As a result, emergency preparedness programs remain significantly underfunded, the report said.

One such activity is CDC’s Public Health Emergency Preparedness cooperative agreement, which is a major source of emergency preparedness funding for state and local health departments. While public health experts have recommended an annual budget of $1 billion for the program, it currently receives only $735 million annually. The Health Care Readiness and Recovery program, an emergency preparedness program run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has had its budget cut by $210 million for fiscal year 2024.

Beyond emergency preparedness, programs that focus on preventing chronic diseases such as obesity and cancer remain underfunded. Only $1.4 billion of the CDC’s total health care budget of $4.5 trillion is used to address chronic disease prevention. As a result, many state and local health departments may lack reliable chronic disease prevention programs, the annual report said.

While the federal government boosted public health funding during the emergency phase of the pandemic, many programs have now seen their funding decreased or cut out completely, according to Dara Lieberman, MPP, director of government relations at Trust for America’s Health.

The new report calls for critical investments in the nation’s public health infrastructure to improve vaccine production and distribution, modernize data systems and improve the resilience of the public health workforce. Also important is increasing funding for health programs that address health inequities, chronic disease prevention and health issues related to climate change and extreme weather.

For more, read “The Impact of Chronic Underfunding on America’s Public Health System 2024."

Photo by Drazen Zigic, courtesy iStockphoto