The health of a community’s citizens is arguably one of its most valuable assets, argues Professor Jeff Levi in a new Health Affairs blog. He and his coauthor, Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc, who most recently served as Acting Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), suggest that a system that creates and maintains each community’s health constitutes an important aspect of the infrastructure needed to support the community as a whole.
They write: “Public health is the natural and historic bridge between the health care system and the community — both in terms of linking the health care system with services and organizations that address health-related social factors and in creating healthy conditions in the community. But the sad truth is, the public health infrastructure is struggling to step up to serve as that bridge. Like other parts of our nation’s infrastructure, it has been chronically underfunded.”
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