Our Health Policy Matters

Note: After the Supreme Court releases its ruling on the Affordable Care Act, OHPM will be publishing analysis and commentary on what the decision means for key subgroups of the population.  Come back to this site early and often for writing that will cut through the noise!  Just before he was forced out of his job as a senior Florida public health official – joining thousands of his colleagues across the country who have recently met the same fate – Daniel Parker commented that “we are victims of a false portrayal of public services as waste .” He is so right. Source: CMS Data, Health Affairs, June 2012 (online) Last year, we spent over $86 billion on public health services. That may seem like a big number.  But it represents only 3% of our nation’s total health spending.  For that 3%, we have doubled our life expectancy over the last century.  We’ve immunized our children, improved the quality of our food and water, and gotten dangero...

Note: After the Supreme Court releases its ruling on the Affordable Care Act, OHPM will be publishing analysis and commentary on what the decision means for key subgroups of the population.  Come back to this site early and often for writing that will cut through the noise!  Just before he was forced out of his job as a senior Florida public health official – joining thousands of his colleagues across the country who have recently met the same fate – Daniel Parker commented that “we are victims of a false portrayal of public services as waste .” He is so right. Source: CMS Data, Health Affairs, June 2012 (online) Last year, we spent over $86 billion on public health services. That may seem like a big number.  But it represents only 3% of our nation’s total health spending.  For that 3%, we have doubled our life expectancy over the last century.  We’ve immunized our children, improved the quality of our food and water, and gotten dangero...