National Institute of Health National Library of Medicine
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
The Role of Government in Public Health
"The state is a facilitator … a convener … maybe a funder."
"I believe government ought to be involved in all areas where people can't do for themselves, health included."
"Who is responsible for planning health care delivery?"
"Who will provide leadership?"
"Public health can lead the way … can get the ear of the decision-makers."
"Politics is going to be a part of this; there's no way around it."
"The overall responsibility of government is to assure the public that the environment is safe."
"Rules and regulations must be designed to serve that goal."
"A big job of government is to collect information, to figure out what causes the problem."
In general, Americans are skeptical about the role of government.
Concern for individual rights shapes the public philosophy and attitudes of policymakers and ordinary citizens alike. (Heclo, 1986)
From this perspective, society is made up of individual persons with "inalienable rights."
The purpose of government is to protect those rights and ensure the basic conditions necessary for their exercise — civil order, a free market, and equal individual opportunity.
Government, in other words, ensures that the basic means to the good life are available, but it refrains from specifying what the content of that life should be or how individuals should behave, except to prevent them from infringing on the rights of others.
This mainstream perspective is tempered somewhat by another long-standing tradition in American political philosophy, rooted in concern for the community as a whole.
This view emphasizes the social ties that bind people together, including the values they share.
It sees government as a facilitator of the social bond and the policy process as a means of defining positive goals and taking concerted action.
These two themes are reflected in the history of American governance.
In general, the philosophy of limited government implied by a concern for individual rights has prevailed.
But the theme of positive values and community effort has persisted, and deliberate government steps to combat acknowledged social ills have become increasingly acceptable to most Americans, remaining so even during the renewed stress on individualism in recent years.
Given the caution with which government action is approached in the United States, it is appropriate that the role envisioned for government in the mission of public health should be somewhat limited.
Nevertheless, within this limited scope fall a number of key functions that fulfill values implied by each of the two philosophical traditions.
If the range of government action is narrow, the substance is no less crucial to the well-being of the American people.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
ON AMERICA'S THIRD-WORLD FOURTH-RATE PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM
Re: ON AMERICA'S THIRD-WORLD FOURTH-RATE PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM
National Institute of Health National Library of Medicine
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
The Functions of Government in Public Health
The committee sees the government role in public health as made up of three functions: assessment, policy development, and assurance.
These functions correspond to the major phases of public problem-solving: identification of problems, mobilization of necessary effort and resources, and assurance that vital conditions are in place and that crucial services are received.
Assessment
Under this heading are all the activities involved in the concept of community diagnosis, such as surveillance, identifying needs, analyzing the causes of problems, collecting and interpreting data, case-finding, monitoring and forecasting trends, research, and evaluation of outcomes.
Assessment is inherently a public function because policy formulation, in order to be legitimate, is expected to take in all relevant available information and to be based on objective factors — to the extent possible.
Private sector entities are expected to have self-interests.
Therefore the information they generate, while frequently quite useful to the policy process, is not judged by its fairness.
In contrast, although public agencies in practice do not always weigh all sides of a question, in principle they are obligated to do so.
Moreover, public decisions take place in the context of limited resources.
Society cannot do everything it would like to do or with the intensity it might prefer.
Thus trade-offs among competing uses of resources are necessary.
The wisdom, justice, and perceived legitimacy of public decisions are crucially affected by the quality of the information on which they are based.
A function of government is to provide a central mechanism by means of which competing proposals can be assessed equitably.
In addition, the government has an important responsibility to develop a broader base of knowledge in order to ensure that policy is not driven by purely short-range issues constrained by current knowledge.
Public sector assessment activities should include supporting and conducting research into fundamental determinants of health — behavioral, environmental, biological, and socioeconomic — as well as monitoring health status and trends.
The assessment function facilitates good decisions in both the private and public sectors.
Since assessment seldom has its own constituency, however, it is often starved for resources.
A fully developed assessment function is an absolutely essential part of the ideal public health system, and it is one that the committee believes to be in large measure attainable.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
The Functions of Government in Public Health
The committee sees the government role in public health as made up of three functions: assessment, policy development, and assurance.
These functions correspond to the major phases of public problem-solving: identification of problems, mobilization of necessary effort and resources, and assurance that vital conditions are in place and that crucial services are received.
Assessment
Under this heading are all the activities involved in the concept of community diagnosis, such as surveillance, identifying needs, analyzing the causes of problems, collecting and interpreting data, case-finding, monitoring and forecasting trends, research, and evaluation of outcomes.
Assessment is inherently a public function because policy formulation, in order to be legitimate, is expected to take in all relevant available information and to be based on objective factors — to the extent possible.
Private sector entities are expected to have self-interests.
Therefore the information they generate, while frequently quite useful to the policy process, is not judged by its fairness.
In contrast, although public agencies in practice do not always weigh all sides of a question, in principle they are obligated to do so.
Moreover, public decisions take place in the context of limited resources.
Society cannot do everything it would like to do or with the intensity it might prefer.
Thus trade-offs among competing uses of resources are necessary.
The wisdom, justice, and perceived legitimacy of public decisions are crucially affected by the quality of the information on which they are based.
A function of government is to provide a central mechanism by means of which competing proposals can be assessed equitably.
In addition, the government has an important responsibility to develop a broader base of knowledge in order to ensure that policy is not driven by purely short-range issues constrained by current knowledge.
Public sector assessment activities should include supporting and conducting research into fundamental determinants of health — behavioral, environmental, biological, and socioeconomic — as well as monitoring health status and trends.
The assessment function facilitates good decisions in both the private and public sectors.
Since assessment seldom has its own constituency, however, it is often starved for resources.
A fully developed assessment function is an absolutely essential part of the ideal public health system, and it is one that the committee believes to be in large measure attainable.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: ON AMERICA'S THIRD-WORLD FOURTH-RATE PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM
National Institute of Health National Library of Medicine
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
The Functions of Government in Public Health, continued ...
Policy Development
Policy formulation takes place as the result of interactions among a wide range of public and private organizations and individuals.
It is the process by which society makes decisions about problems, chooses goals and the proper means to reach them, handles conflicting views about what should be done, and allocates resources.
Government provides overall guidance in this process.
In contrast to private entities, it alone has the power to give binding answers.
Therefore, although it joins with the private sector to arrive at decisions, government has a special obligation to ensure that the public interest is served by whatever measures are adopted.
As with other governmental entities, the public health agency bears this responsibility.
Examples of the governmental policy development role include planning and priority-setting; policy leadership and advocacy; convening, negotiating, and brokering; mobilizing resources; training constituency building and provision of public information; and encouragement of private and public sector action through incentives and persuasion.
The public health agency's special role in policy development means it must pay attention to the quality of the process itself, in addition to that of particular decisions.
It must raise crucial questions that no one else raises; initiate communication with all affected parties, including the public-at-large; consider long-range issues in addition to crises; plan ahead as well as react; speak on behalf of persons and groups who have difficulty being heard in the process; build bridges between fragmented concerns; and strive for fairness and balance.
The public health agency should be equipped for this role by its technical knowledge and professional expertise.
Used judiciously, the knowledge base of public health tempers the excesses of partisan politics and makes for more just decisions.
Technical knowledge will have the best effect, however, when used in the context of a positive appreciation for the democratic political process, by professionals who are politically as well as technically astute.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
The Functions of Government in Public Health, continued ...
Policy Development
Policy formulation takes place as the result of interactions among a wide range of public and private organizations and individuals.
It is the process by which society makes decisions about problems, chooses goals and the proper means to reach them, handles conflicting views about what should be done, and allocates resources.
Government provides overall guidance in this process.
In contrast to private entities, it alone has the power to give binding answers.
Therefore, although it joins with the private sector to arrive at decisions, government has a special obligation to ensure that the public interest is served by whatever measures are adopted.
As with other governmental entities, the public health agency bears this responsibility.
Examples of the governmental policy development role include planning and priority-setting; policy leadership and advocacy; convening, negotiating, and brokering; mobilizing resources; training constituency building and provision of public information; and encouragement of private and public sector action through incentives and persuasion.
The public health agency's special role in policy development means it must pay attention to the quality of the process itself, in addition to that of particular decisions.
It must raise crucial questions that no one else raises; initiate communication with all affected parties, including the public-at-large; consider long-range issues in addition to crises; plan ahead as well as react; speak on behalf of persons and groups who have difficulty being heard in the process; build bridges between fragmented concerns; and strive for fairness and balance.
The public health agency should be equipped for this role by its technical knowledge and professional expertise.
Used judiciously, the knowledge base of public health tempers the excesses of partisan politics and makes for more just decisions.
Technical knowledge will have the best effect, however, when used in the context of a positive appreciation for the democratic political process, by professionals who are politically as well as technically astute.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: ON AMERICA'S THIRD-WORLD FOURTH-RATE PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM
National Institute of Health National Library of Medicine
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
The Functions of Government in Public Health, concluded ...
Assurance
A core public sector function is to make sure that necessary services are provided to reach agreed upon goals, either by encouraging private sector action, by requiring it, or by providing services directly.
The assurance function in public health involves seeing to the implementation of legislative mandates as well as maintaining statutory responsibilities.
It includes developing adequate responses to crises and supporting crucial services that have worked well for so long that they are now taken for granted.
It includes regulation of services and products provided in both the private and public sectors, as well as maintaining accountability to the people by setting objectives and reporting on progress.
Assurance implies the maintenance of a level of service needed to attain an intended impact or outcome that is achievable given the resources and techniques available.
Carrying out the assurance function requires the exercise of authority.
This is not a responsibility that can be delegated to the private sector.
Members of society expect government to make certain that they enjoy at least adequate safety and security.
The public health agency must be able to exercise authority consistent with fulfilling citizens' expectations and must account to them for its actions with equal energy.
As a part of the assurance function, in the interest of justice public health agencies should guarantee certain health services.
Such a guarantee expresses a measurable public commitment to each member of society.
In operational terms, this implies guaranteeing both that the services are available (present somewhere in the community) and, in the case of services to individuals, that the costs will be borne by the government for those unable to afford them.
When these services are not and cannot be present in the larger community, it is the public health agency's responsibility to provide them directly.
Such a guarantee reflects a community consensus that access to certain health services is necessary to maintain our notion of a decent society.
A guarantee acts as a barrier to service cuts in hard times, which tend to fall on the must vulnerable.
Such a step also serves as a stimulus to improvement, as has happened in the case of public education, where community efforts have moved from ensuring universal coverage to enriching the quality of the service.
The committee notes the examples set by the State of Michigan, which has guaranteed by law prenatal care to every woman in the state, and by San Diego County, California, which has a county-funded system making available acute care to all medically indigent adults.
In recent years a competitive market approach to the provision of health services has been advanced as the potential solution to ills that plague the U.S. health system, cost inflation in particular.
While recognizing the existence of competition in service delivery, the committee believes that the responsibilities outlined above must be exercised by government in order to ensure basic capacity throughout the system.
The government role in public health provides the necessary context for private sector activity.
Government is responsible for striving to achieve a balance between the two great concerns in the American public philosophy: individual liberty and free enterprise on the one hand, just and equitable action for the good of the community on the other.
Many times during the study, the committee heard public health defined as "what the market can't or won't do."
Such comments usually refer to particular services and activities for which the market offers inadequate incentives, such as primary health care for those who can't pay or public services such as air pollution control.
The committee acknowledges the existence of this residual view of public health, but observes that to define public health as what the market can't or won't do implies a passive or indifferent public sector and suggests that what the market can't do is not worth the concerned attention of society.
On the contrary, recognition of the shortcomings or indifference of the market with respect to certain crucial needs should act as the rationale and catalyst for government action.
Such action can take various forms: encouraging the development of private sector financial incentives where none now exist, so that, for example, the care of the uninsured could be made attractive to private providers; building helping relationships between public and private personnel, as when public health nurses complement the work of private practice physicians serving indigent patients; or imposing sanctions for failure to abide by regulatory requirements.
Where incentives cannot be mobilized, the public health agency must and should provide necessary services directly.
At any level of government, the public sector responsibility for the health of the people must have a focal point in one agency charged with taking the lead in assuring that necessary obligations are fulfilled.
Although it may sometimes be appropriate for public health-related responsibilities to be allocated among more than one public agency in addition to the health department, the committee believes that fulfilling the assurance function adequately requires that there be one place of ultimate responsibility and accountability.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
The Functions of Government in Public Health, concluded ...
Assurance
A core public sector function is to make sure that necessary services are provided to reach agreed upon goals, either by encouraging private sector action, by requiring it, or by providing services directly.
The assurance function in public health involves seeing to the implementation of legislative mandates as well as maintaining statutory responsibilities.
It includes developing adequate responses to crises and supporting crucial services that have worked well for so long that they are now taken for granted.
It includes regulation of services and products provided in both the private and public sectors, as well as maintaining accountability to the people by setting objectives and reporting on progress.
Assurance implies the maintenance of a level of service needed to attain an intended impact or outcome that is achievable given the resources and techniques available.
Carrying out the assurance function requires the exercise of authority.
This is not a responsibility that can be delegated to the private sector.
Members of society expect government to make certain that they enjoy at least adequate safety and security.
The public health agency must be able to exercise authority consistent with fulfilling citizens' expectations and must account to them for its actions with equal energy.
As a part of the assurance function, in the interest of justice public health agencies should guarantee certain health services.
Such a guarantee expresses a measurable public commitment to each member of society.
In operational terms, this implies guaranteeing both that the services are available (present somewhere in the community) and, in the case of services to individuals, that the costs will be borne by the government for those unable to afford them.
When these services are not and cannot be present in the larger community, it is the public health agency's responsibility to provide them directly.
Such a guarantee reflects a community consensus that access to certain health services is necessary to maintain our notion of a decent society.
A guarantee acts as a barrier to service cuts in hard times, which tend to fall on the must vulnerable.
Such a step also serves as a stimulus to improvement, as has happened in the case of public education, where community efforts have moved from ensuring universal coverage to enriching the quality of the service.
The committee notes the examples set by the State of Michigan, which has guaranteed by law prenatal care to every woman in the state, and by San Diego County, California, which has a county-funded system making available acute care to all medically indigent adults.
In recent years a competitive market approach to the provision of health services has been advanced as the potential solution to ills that plague the U.S. health system, cost inflation in particular.
While recognizing the existence of competition in service delivery, the committee believes that the responsibilities outlined above must be exercised by government in order to ensure basic capacity throughout the system.
The government role in public health provides the necessary context for private sector activity.
Government is responsible for striving to achieve a balance between the two great concerns in the American public philosophy: individual liberty and free enterprise on the one hand, just and equitable action for the good of the community on the other.
Many times during the study, the committee heard public health defined as "what the market can't or won't do."
Such comments usually refer to particular services and activities for which the market offers inadequate incentives, such as primary health care for those who can't pay or public services such as air pollution control.
The committee acknowledges the existence of this residual view of public health, but observes that to define public health as what the market can't or won't do implies a passive or indifferent public sector and suggests that what the market can't do is not worth the concerned attention of society.
On the contrary, recognition of the shortcomings or indifference of the market with respect to certain crucial needs should act as the rationale and catalyst for government action.
Such action can take various forms: encouraging the development of private sector financial incentives where none now exist, so that, for example, the care of the uninsured could be made attractive to private providers; building helping relationships between public and private personnel, as when public health nurses complement the work of private practice physicians serving indigent patients; or imposing sanctions for failure to abide by regulatory requirements.
Where incentives cannot be mobilized, the public health agency must and should provide necessary services directly.
At any level of government, the public sector responsibility for the health of the people must have a focal point in one agency charged with taking the lead in assuring that necessary obligations are fulfilled.
Although it may sometimes be appropriate for public health-related responsibilities to be allocated among more than one public agency in addition to the health department, the committee believes that fulfilling the assurance function adequately requires that there be one place of ultimate responsibility and accountability.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: ON AMERICA'S THIRD-WORLD FOURTH-RATE PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM
National Institute of Health National Library of Medicine
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
State, Local, and Federal Roles in Public Health
The framers of the Constitution of the United States understood that the "federal" system of government they created was not an end in itself but a means to distribute power among the national government and those of the states. (Grodzins, 1985)
They provided for state delegation of specific powers to the national government.
All other powers were reserved to the states, and to this day states and the central government — that which we now call "federal" — share functions and power.
States in turn are the architects of local governments, of which today there are a bewildering array, including counties, municipalities, townships, school districts, and special districts.
The overall three-level system of federal, state, and local governments includes over 80,000 governmental units.
As one observer notes:
The enormous complexity of this system … suggests that it is impossible to have enough data to operate within it in a consistently rational fashion. … [E]fforts to orchestrate dramatic change … are bound to fall short of expectations. … (O'Toole, 1985)
Relationships among the many parties in the system are not hierarchical, but a matter of give and take.
"Different governments need each other, and bargaining … is the norm." (O'Toole, 1985)
Nor are patterns of interaction static; rather they are constantly changing.
In addition, the distribution of functions and responsibilities among levels of government varies greatly from place to place, and many functions are shared, often in complex ways.
Nevertheless, some broad generalizations can be made.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
State, Local, and Federal Roles in Public Health
The framers of the Constitution of the United States understood that the "federal" system of government they created was not an end in itself but a means to distribute power among the national government and those of the states. (Grodzins, 1985)
They provided for state delegation of specific powers to the national government.
All other powers were reserved to the states, and to this day states and the central government — that which we now call "federal" — share functions and power.
States in turn are the architects of local governments, of which today there are a bewildering array, including counties, municipalities, townships, school districts, and special districts.
The overall three-level system of federal, state, and local governments includes over 80,000 governmental units.
As one observer notes:
The enormous complexity of this system … suggests that it is impossible to have enough data to operate within it in a consistently rational fashion. … [E]fforts to orchestrate dramatic change … are bound to fall short of expectations. … (O'Toole, 1985)
Relationships among the many parties in the system are not hierarchical, but a matter of give and take.
"Different governments need each other, and bargaining … is the norm." (O'Toole, 1985)
Nor are patterns of interaction static; rather they are constantly changing.
In addition, the distribution of functions and responsibilities among levels of government varies greatly from place to place, and many functions are shared, often in complex ways.
Nevertheless, some broad generalizations can be made.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: ON AMERICA'S THIRD-WORLD FOURTH-RATE PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM
National Institute of Health National Library of Medicine
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
State, Local, and Federal Roles in Public Health, continued ...
State Governments
Under the Constitution, the states are the repositories of powers not specifically delegated to the federal government.
They have the primary responsibility for the well-being — including the health — of their citizens, and have exercised their powers over the years in a multitude of ways: They are the constitutional source of local government authority and can delegate broad powers over health matters to county and municipal governments.
The marked expansion of federal activism beginning in the Franklin D. Roosevelt presidency and the huge increase in intergovernmental fiscal transfer programs during the 1960s and 1970s added greatly to state responsibilities without removing existing ones.
At the same time, because conventional policy wisdom was critical of state administrative capability and skeptical of some states' willingness to fulfill national priorities, many federal funding programs bypassed state governments entirely.
Today, despite increased state activity and despite considerable efforts in the states to reform governance processes, according to the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, ''it does seem that improvements in state governmental performance have not been matched by a commensurate increase in their role as independent polities and policymakers." (Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, 1985)
Yet their constitutional role and accumulated responsibilities guarantee that states will continue to be the "pivotal actors in our federal system." (Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, 1985)
The recent decline in federal activism and growing tolerance for state- and local level diversity provide an opening for states to demonstrate their effectiveness.
This context sets the stage for asserting the central position of the states in public health.
The key ingredients of this role include:
* Statewide assessment, policy development, and assurance.
It is the state's responsibility to see that functions and services necessary to address the mission of public health are in place throughout the state.
This can be done by encouraging, providing assistance to, and/or requiring local governments or private providers to perform certain of these functions.
The state may also elect to provide certain services directly.
* Designating a lead agency for public health in the state (the place of ultimate responsibility) to fulfill the functions of assessment, policy development, and assurance.
In most cases this will be the state health department, which has the obligation — and should have the authority — to ensure that important public health policy goals are being met, even when their implementation has been assigned to another entity.
State primacy in public health presents an opportunity for the entire nation to benefit by learning from evaluations of innovations and variations in public health programs at the state level.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
State, Local, and Federal Roles in Public Health, continued ...
State Governments
Under the Constitution, the states are the repositories of powers not specifically delegated to the federal government.
They have the primary responsibility for the well-being — including the health — of their citizens, and have exercised their powers over the years in a multitude of ways: They are the constitutional source of local government authority and can delegate broad powers over health matters to county and municipal governments.
The marked expansion of federal activism beginning in the Franklin D. Roosevelt presidency and the huge increase in intergovernmental fiscal transfer programs during the 1960s and 1970s added greatly to state responsibilities without removing existing ones.
At the same time, because conventional policy wisdom was critical of state administrative capability and skeptical of some states' willingness to fulfill national priorities, many federal funding programs bypassed state governments entirely.
Today, despite increased state activity and despite considerable efforts in the states to reform governance processes, according to the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, ''it does seem that improvements in state governmental performance have not been matched by a commensurate increase in their role as independent polities and policymakers." (Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, 1985)
Yet their constitutional role and accumulated responsibilities guarantee that states will continue to be the "pivotal actors in our federal system." (Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, 1985)
The recent decline in federal activism and growing tolerance for state- and local level diversity provide an opening for states to demonstrate their effectiveness.
This context sets the stage for asserting the central position of the states in public health.
The key ingredients of this role include:
* Statewide assessment, policy development, and assurance.
It is the state's responsibility to see that functions and services necessary to address the mission of public health are in place throughout the state.
This can be done by encouraging, providing assistance to, and/or requiring local governments or private providers to perform certain of these functions.
The state may also elect to provide certain services directly.
* Designating a lead agency for public health in the state (the place of ultimate responsibility) to fulfill the functions of assessment, policy development, and assurance.
In most cases this will be the state health department, which has the obligation — and should have the authority — to ensure that important public health policy goals are being met, even when their implementation has been assigned to another entity.
State primacy in public health presents an opportunity for the entire nation to benefit by learning from evaluations of innovations and variations in public health programs at the state level.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: ON AMERICA'S THIRD-WORLD FOURTH-RATE PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM
National Institute of Health National Library of Medicine
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
State, Local, and Federal Roles in Public Health, continued ...
Federal Government
Two developments since the founding period laid the groundwork for the enormous expansion of federal government health activity in modern times.
First, the Supreme Court decision in McCulloch v. Maryland set out the doctrine of implied powers, which expanded the potential powers of the national government beyond those specifically delegated in the Constitution to those reasonably implied by the delegated powers. (McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819)
Second, the passage in 1913 of the Sixteenth Amendment, authorizing a national income tax, substantially expanded the federal revenue-raising capability.
The commerce clause, interpreted under the doctrine of implied powers, and the power to tax for the general welfare under the Constitution have been the primary bases for much of national government health activity.
Under the commerce clause, the Congress has the power to regulate commerce affecting more than one state, including health aspects of commerce.
Federal grants-in-aid to states and localities in support of the general welfare have enabled the federal government to influence state- and local-health activity in line with national priorities.
In addition, the federal government provides technical advice and assistance to states.
A long era of expansion in the federal role began in the 1930s and continued through the Great Society period of the 1960s.
During the following decade the tide turned, and a nationwide redirection of emphasis emerged.
This trend has decreased the federal presence in health, among other policy areas, and resulted in increasing reliance on state- and local level activity and funding.
Despite the relative deemphasis on national government action, the federal role remains crucial.
A primary activity is overall health policy development for the nation, including a variety of efforts to focus nationwide attention on major public health problems and encourage action on the part of other levels of government and of private groups.
Such efforts may appropriately include provision of funds, but the potential for federal health policy leadership extends far beyond what can or should be expressed in dollars.
Federal leadership in public health issues is particularly critical if national scientific and professional expertise is to play its proper role in the policy process, offsetting the influence of special interests that tend to be especially decisive in smaller-scale public affairs.
Public health's knowledge base is the core of what it has to offer to protect the health of the American people, and this knowledge depends on national government advocacy in order to function most effectively.
The federal government also plays an irreplaceable role in the development of national health data and in the conduct of research.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
State, Local, and Federal Roles in Public Health, continued ...
Federal Government
Two developments since the founding period laid the groundwork for the enormous expansion of federal government health activity in modern times.
First, the Supreme Court decision in McCulloch v. Maryland set out the doctrine of implied powers, which expanded the potential powers of the national government beyond those specifically delegated in the Constitution to those reasonably implied by the delegated powers. (McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819)
Second, the passage in 1913 of the Sixteenth Amendment, authorizing a national income tax, substantially expanded the federal revenue-raising capability.
The commerce clause, interpreted under the doctrine of implied powers, and the power to tax for the general welfare under the Constitution have been the primary bases for much of national government health activity.
Under the commerce clause, the Congress has the power to regulate commerce affecting more than one state, including health aspects of commerce.
Federal grants-in-aid to states and localities in support of the general welfare have enabled the federal government to influence state- and local-health activity in line with national priorities.
In addition, the federal government provides technical advice and assistance to states.
A long era of expansion in the federal role began in the 1930s and continued through the Great Society period of the 1960s.
During the following decade the tide turned, and a nationwide redirection of emphasis emerged.
This trend has decreased the federal presence in health, among other policy areas, and resulted in increasing reliance on state- and local level activity and funding.
Despite the relative deemphasis on national government action, the federal role remains crucial.
A primary activity is overall health policy development for the nation, including a variety of efforts to focus nationwide attention on major public health problems and encourage action on the part of other levels of government and of private groups.
Such efforts may appropriately include provision of funds, but the potential for federal health policy leadership extends far beyond what can or should be expressed in dollars.
Federal leadership in public health issues is particularly critical if national scientific and professional expertise is to play its proper role in the policy process, offsetting the influence of special interests that tend to be especially decisive in smaller-scale public affairs.
Public health's knowledge base is the core of what it has to offer to protect the health of the American people, and this knowledge depends on national government advocacy in order to function most effectively.
The federal government also plays an irreplaceable role in the development of national health data and in the conduct of research.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: ON AMERICA'S THIRD-WORLD FOURTH-RATE PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM
National Institute of Health National Library of Medicine
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
State, Local, and Federal Roles in Public Health, concluded ...
Local Governments
The vast numbers, overlapping jurisdictions, and varying authority of local governments make generalization difficult.
Service responsibilities and fiscal capabilities are heterogeneous, and often the unit obligated to provide a service is not responsible for its financial support.
From the public health perspective, perhaps the central problem is that our three-level model of government, placing basic responsibility for the people's health at the state level, does not fit well with the reality that health services must be delivered locally.
In constitutional law, local governments are clearly creatures of the states.
Still, tradition and politics have combined to give the locals a strong voice in intergovernmental affairs, and in most states public health authority is substantially decentralized.
In addition, in recent years many local governments have dealt directly with the federal government in connection with federal grants-in-aid and revenue sharing.
Given this context, the strengths of local governments for the provision of public health are (1) to serve as a governmental presence at the local level, ensuring each citizen's access to the security, protection, and authority of government; (2) to provide a mechanism for implementation and integration of a complex array of needed services; (3) to perform these functions on the basis of both professional and community-specific knowledge and in line with community values to the extent that they are consistent with the maintenance of individual rights; and (4) to convey information on local needs, priorities, and program effects to the state and national levels.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
State, Local, and Federal Roles in Public Health, concluded ...
Local Governments
The vast numbers, overlapping jurisdictions, and varying authority of local governments make generalization difficult.
Service responsibilities and fiscal capabilities are heterogeneous, and often the unit obligated to provide a service is not responsible for its financial support.
From the public health perspective, perhaps the central problem is that our three-level model of government, placing basic responsibility for the people's health at the state level, does not fit well with the reality that health services must be delivered locally.
In constitutional law, local governments are clearly creatures of the states.
Still, tradition and politics have combined to give the locals a strong voice in intergovernmental affairs, and in most states public health authority is substantially decentralized.
In addition, in recent years many local governments have dealt directly with the federal government in connection with federal grants-in-aid and revenue sharing.
Given this context, the strengths of local governments for the provision of public health are (1) to serve as a governmental presence at the local level, ensuring each citizen's access to the security, protection, and authority of government; (2) to provide a mechanism for implementation and integration of a complex array of needed services; (3) to perform these functions on the basis of both professional and community-specific knowledge and in line with community values to the extent that they are consistent with the maintenance of individual rights; and (4) to convey information on local needs, priorities, and program effects to the state and national levels.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: ON AMERICA'S THIRD-WORLD FOURTH-RATE PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM
National Institute of Health National Library of Medicine
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
The Public and Private Sectors in Public Health
In the history of public health the line between public and private responsibilities has never been hard and fast.
It has shifted and blurred in response to changes in public health knowledge and in political agendas.
In many respects, the varying points at which the boundary was drawn during the evolution of public health became de facto definitions that continue today to shape the way in which it is perceived.
Early public health activities, focused on combating and preventing epidemics, were mainly matters of sanitary engineering and environmental hygiene, because illness was believed to be associated with "dirt."
Private physicians were among a wide range of active participants in the early citizen hygiene associations that joined with governments in these efforts. (Duffy, 1979)
During this period, public health was aimed at preventing illness by improving living conditions, and care of individual patients was left to private physicians.
With the discovery of bacteria and the development of immunization techniques, however, disease prevention could no longer be so easily defined solely as a communitywide affair.
The line between prevention and treatment began to fade, and the domains of public health and private medicine could no longer be easily separated.
This development created a certain amount of tension between the two that has never fully been resolved. (Rosenkrantz, 1974; Duffy, 1979; Starr, 1982)
Given its continuing need for medical expertise, public health has struggled ever since to assert a positive role for itself and to maintain an accord with the medical profession.
In modern times the focus of tension has shifted again, ironically in the direction of bringing the medical care of individual patients more strongly within the purview of public health than ever before.
Increasingly, health departments have become "providers of last resort" for uninsured patients and those Medicaid patients rejected by or simply beyond the reach of private providers and institutions.
Once immersed exclusively in population-wide and community-based efforts, health departments have rapidly become de facto family doctors for millions of Americans.
While aware that there are complex reasons behind these developments, the committee does not believe that the ideal public health system is defined in the way in which Robert Frost once defined "home" — as that place where, "when you have to go there, they have to take you in."
Clearly, the line between community-based and individual strategies in disease prevention and health promotion cannot be simply drawn.
It is evident, however, that the failure to define a positive role for the public sector in public health is producing what one observer of U.S. attempts to deal with AIDS has called a "crisis of authority." (Fox, 1986)
As the place where the health buck stops, the official health agency at a given level of government must be the locus of decision-making to assure that necessary functions and services are in place.
The public sector is also the most appropriate provider of health services that are poorly handled in the market.
But the direct provision by health departments of personal health care to patients who are unwanted by the private sector absorbs so much of the limited resources available to public health — money, human resources, energy, time, and attention — that the price is higher than it appears.
Maintenance functions — those community-wide public services that are truly ill-suited to the private sector — become stunted because they cannot compete, and key functions such as assessment and policy development wither because they are not seen as life-and-death matters.
In the ideal U.S. health system, given our traditions and values, most personal medical care, regardless of payment status, would be provided by the private sector.
In the same ideal, public health would emphasize specialized personal health services uniquely needed for fulfilling the assurance function of the public health mission.
The committee notes that care of the poor and the uninsured has indeed become an issue in the private sector, in the form of concern over "uncompensated care."
The slow starvation of classic public health activities offers an additional compelling reason for finding what one public health official interviewed in the study called a "medical home" for poor Americans, one that makes sense in terms of patient needs and professional capabilities, not simply a place that has to take them in.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
The Public and Private Sectors in Public Health
In the history of public health the line between public and private responsibilities has never been hard and fast.
It has shifted and blurred in response to changes in public health knowledge and in political agendas.
In many respects, the varying points at which the boundary was drawn during the evolution of public health became de facto definitions that continue today to shape the way in which it is perceived.
Early public health activities, focused on combating and preventing epidemics, were mainly matters of sanitary engineering and environmental hygiene, because illness was believed to be associated with "dirt."
Private physicians were among a wide range of active participants in the early citizen hygiene associations that joined with governments in these efforts. (Duffy, 1979)
During this period, public health was aimed at preventing illness by improving living conditions, and care of individual patients was left to private physicians.
With the discovery of bacteria and the development of immunization techniques, however, disease prevention could no longer be so easily defined solely as a communitywide affair.
The line between prevention and treatment began to fade, and the domains of public health and private medicine could no longer be easily separated.
This development created a certain amount of tension between the two that has never fully been resolved. (Rosenkrantz, 1974; Duffy, 1979; Starr, 1982)
Given its continuing need for medical expertise, public health has struggled ever since to assert a positive role for itself and to maintain an accord with the medical profession.
In modern times the focus of tension has shifted again, ironically in the direction of bringing the medical care of individual patients more strongly within the purview of public health than ever before.
Increasingly, health departments have become "providers of last resort" for uninsured patients and those Medicaid patients rejected by or simply beyond the reach of private providers and institutions.
Once immersed exclusively in population-wide and community-based efforts, health departments have rapidly become de facto family doctors for millions of Americans.
While aware that there are complex reasons behind these developments, the committee does not believe that the ideal public health system is defined in the way in which Robert Frost once defined "home" — as that place where, "when you have to go there, they have to take you in."
Clearly, the line between community-based and individual strategies in disease prevention and health promotion cannot be simply drawn.
It is evident, however, that the failure to define a positive role for the public sector in public health is producing what one observer of U.S. attempts to deal with AIDS has called a "crisis of authority." (Fox, 1986)
As the place where the health buck stops, the official health agency at a given level of government must be the locus of decision-making to assure that necessary functions and services are in place.
The public sector is also the most appropriate provider of health services that are poorly handled in the market.
But the direct provision by health departments of personal health care to patients who are unwanted by the private sector absorbs so much of the limited resources available to public health — money, human resources, energy, time, and attention — that the price is higher than it appears.
Maintenance functions — those community-wide public services that are truly ill-suited to the private sector — become stunted because they cannot compete, and key functions such as assessment and policy development wither because they are not seen as life-and-death matters.
In the ideal U.S. health system, given our traditions and values, most personal medical care, regardless of payment status, would be provided by the private sector.
In the same ideal, public health would emphasize specialized personal health services uniquely needed for fulfilling the assurance function of the public health mission.
The committee notes that care of the poor and the uninsured has indeed become an issue in the private sector, in the form of concern over "uncompensated care."
The slow starvation of classic public health activities offers an additional compelling reason for finding what one public health official interviewed in the study called a "medical home" for poor Americans, one that makes sense in terms of patient needs and professional capabilities, not simply a place that has to take them in.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: ON AMERICA'S THIRD-WORLD FOURTH-RATE PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM
National Institute of Health National Library of Medicine
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
The Basic Services of Public Health
The potential list of basic public health services is diverse.
Although the practice of public health can be traced back to the ancient Greek interest in the relationship between environmental factors and disease (Ellencweig and Yoshpe, 1984), over the centuries a wide range of notions has come to be more or less accepted under the public health umbrella.
To environmental health, preventive medicine, epidemiology, and disease control have been added such disparate concerns as primary medical care, advocacy, school health, crisis response, family planning, care of the poor, dental care, licensure and certification, mental health, and home health care, to name only some of the topics raised in the committee's conversations with practitioners, clients, and others.
A basic service is one that fulfills society's interest in assuring conditions in which people can be healthy, to refer back to the defined mission of public health.
It should be emphasized again that assuring the presence of these services is a governmental function, but their provision is a responsibility shared by both public and private sectors.
There are several possible ways to consider the issue of basics; combined, they may provide workable guidance for policy-making.
One aspect of the issue is the substantive areas that make up the commitment.
Health activities can be grouped under three broad headings: personal health services, or medical care; environmental measures; and education.
Certainly the governmental commitment, the public health mission, requires attention to all three of these substantive areas.
Another aspect of the question "What are the basics?" has to do with shared objectives.
Model Standards: A Guide for Community Preventive Health Services is a set of standards for organizing local health services.
It was developed by the American Public Health Association, the national organizations for state health officers, county health officials, local health officers, and the U.S. Public Health Service.
It has demonstrated that commitment to "a governmental presence at the local level" can be carried beyond vague generalities and translated into specifics about what constitutes an acceptable effort.
This document lists 34 categories of public services that should be available at the local level. (American Public Health Association et al., 1985; see also Appendix C)
The 1990 Objectives for the Nation of the U.S. Public Health Service also encourage conscious and systematic assessment of need, setting of targets, monitoring of progress, and evaluation of outcome to promote health and prevent disease.
It is important to set goals and report to the public on progress toward them even when their accomplishment cannot be assured. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1980; see also Appendix C)
The document targets 18 health problems with objectives for preventing them.
Subsequent documents by the Public Health Service have measured the nation's and states' progress toward meeting these goals.
Finally, there is the issue of whether the idea of basic services suggests a minimum set, full provision of which should be guaranteed by government to all members of society.
The next two chapters will paint the picture of a public health system that is incredibly diverse.
The fact that there is considerable inconsistency among states and in local areas as to existing services in government health agencies raises the question of whether certain services should be available everywhere as a matter of justice.
Clearly, although there is widespread agreement about the value of many so-called basic services, in practice the trade-offs made necessary by limited resources means that some basics are sacrificed to still higher priorities, some of them perhaps outside the health area entirely.
Are there some public health services that should never be sacrificed, no matter what?
Does a governmental obligation to assure conditions in which people can be healthy extend to requiring certain of these conditions?
The committee believes that the answer to these questions is "Yes."
In Michigan, prenatal care is guaranteed to every resident, with support provided for those unable to pay.
The Michigan example does not imply that every state should guarantee prenatal care; it does imply that every state should ask itself explicitly what services are so crucial that access to their benefits ought to be guaranteed, and make good its obligation by providing the required resources when other providers can't or won't.
To sum up, the answer to the question "What are the basics?" of government's responsibility for the people's health encompasses the following elements: assuring a substantive core of activities, assuring adequacy of means and methods, establishing objectives, and providing guarantees.
In the ideal health system, the substance of basic services will entail adequate personal health care for all members of the community, the education of individuals about healthy life-styles and the education of the community-at-large, the control of communicable disease, and the control of environmental hazards — biological, chemical, social, and physical.
Explicit priorities will be set in each community and at each level of government so that clear objectives guide organized community efforts.
And governments will hold themselves accountable to the people by undertaking to guarantee certain services to all as a matter of justice.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
The Future of Public Health, continued ...
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1988.
2A Vision of Public Health in America: An Attainable Ideal, continued ...
The Basic Services of Public Health
The potential list of basic public health services is diverse.
Although the practice of public health can be traced back to the ancient Greek interest in the relationship between environmental factors and disease (Ellencweig and Yoshpe, 1984), over the centuries a wide range of notions has come to be more or less accepted under the public health umbrella.
To environmental health, preventive medicine, epidemiology, and disease control have been added such disparate concerns as primary medical care, advocacy, school health, crisis response, family planning, care of the poor, dental care, licensure and certification, mental health, and home health care, to name only some of the topics raised in the committee's conversations with practitioners, clients, and others.
A basic service is one that fulfills society's interest in assuring conditions in which people can be healthy, to refer back to the defined mission of public health.
It should be emphasized again that assuring the presence of these services is a governmental function, but their provision is a responsibility shared by both public and private sectors.
There are several possible ways to consider the issue of basics; combined, they may provide workable guidance for policy-making.
One aspect of the issue is the substantive areas that make up the commitment.
Health activities can be grouped under three broad headings: personal health services, or medical care; environmental measures; and education.
Certainly the governmental commitment, the public health mission, requires attention to all three of these substantive areas.
Another aspect of the question "What are the basics?" has to do with shared objectives.
Model Standards: A Guide for Community Preventive Health Services is a set of standards for organizing local health services.
It was developed by the American Public Health Association, the national organizations for state health officers, county health officials, local health officers, and the U.S. Public Health Service.
It has demonstrated that commitment to "a governmental presence at the local level" can be carried beyond vague generalities and translated into specifics about what constitutes an acceptable effort.
This document lists 34 categories of public services that should be available at the local level. (American Public Health Association et al., 1985; see also Appendix C)
The 1990 Objectives for the Nation of the U.S. Public Health Service also encourage conscious and systematic assessment of need, setting of targets, monitoring of progress, and evaluation of outcome to promote health and prevent disease.
It is important to set goals and report to the public on progress toward them even when their accomplishment cannot be assured. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1980; see also Appendix C)
The document targets 18 health problems with objectives for preventing them.
Subsequent documents by the Public Health Service have measured the nation's and states' progress toward meeting these goals.
Finally, there is the issue of whether the idea of basic services suggests a minimum set, full provision of which should be guaranteed by government to all members of society.
The next two chapters will paint the picture of a public health system that is incredibly diverse.
The fact that there is considerable inconsistency among states and in local areas as to existing services in government health agencies raises the question of whether certain services should be available everywhere as a matter of justice.
Clearly, although there is widespread agreement about the value of many so-called basic services, in practice the trade-offs made necessary by limited resources means that some basics are sacrificed to still higher priorities, some of them perhaps outside the health area entirely.
Are there some public health services that should never be sacrificed, no matter what?
Does a governmental obligation to assure conditions in which people can be healthy extend to requiring certain of these conditions?
The committee believes that the answer to these questions is "Yes."
In Michigan, prenatal care is guaranteed to every resident, with support provided for those unable to pay.
The Michigan example does not imply that every state should guarantee prenatal care; it does imply that every state should ask itself explicitly what services are so crucial that access to their benefits ought to be guaranteed, and make good its obligation by providing the required resources when other providers can't or won't.
To sum up, the answer to the question "What are the basics?" of government's responsibility for the people's health encompasses the following elements: assuring a substantive core of activities, assuring adequacy of means and methods, establishing objectives, and providing guarantees.
In the ideal health system, the substance of basic services will entail adequate personal health care for all members of the community, the education of individuals about healthy life-styles and the education of the community-at-large, the control of communicable disease, and the control of environmental hazards — biological, chemical, social, and physical.
Explicit priorities will be set in each community and at each level of government so that clear objectives guide organized community efforts.
And governments will hold themselves accountable to the people by undertaking to guarantee certain services to all as a matter of justice.
TO BE CONTINUED ...