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Resolution
02-01 Public
Health Funding for a Safer, Healthier Whereas, the people of Washington State
expect, deserve and require a safe and healthy Washington where
essential programs improve health, with information that works to
protect everybody every day from disease and injury, environmental
threats and impacts from potential biological, chemical and nuclear
terrorist threats, and Whereas, the general welfare, business and
economic climate, and societal stability of the State of Whereas,
the 2000 Public Health Improvement Plan for Whereas, Washington State’s public
health services are integral to the state’s health system, providing
essential communicable disease control services, epidemiological
functions, emergency response capabilities, health promotion and
education services, and environmental health protection, and Whereas, public health services such as
control of vaccine-preventable and other communicable diseases,
maternal and child health home visits, protection of food, water, soil
and air from contamination and promotion of safe disposal of hazardous
wastes are among the most cost-effective programs ever devised, and Whereas, national, state, and local health
systems are experiencing an unprecedented demand for rapid development
of biological, chemical and nuclear response systems, protection from
emerging infectious disease epidemics, control of antibiotic-resistant
bacterial infections, and Whereas, effective provision of the above
services requires long-term investments in science-based disease
surveillance, prevention and control capabilities, information
systems, and a highly skilled and regularly trained professional
workforce, and Whereas,
the use of recent federal funding for the development of an emergency
response system does not provide support for other basic and essential
public health services, and Whereas,
the state’s public health system is precariously funded by a
non-stable mix of funds vulnerable to the effects of economic
recession, political changes and intense competition with other
governmental programs, and Whereas,
in the face of critical health threats, high unemployment, expanding
public health needs, and growing problems with access to essential
health services, local governments in both urban and rural areas
throughout the State are under intense budgetary pressures leading, in
some cases, to dismantling or severe constriction of local public
health programs, and Whereas,
loss of essential public health services at a time when the need for
them grows ever more critical will inevitably cause an increased burden
of preventable disease for medical care providers, increase the costs of
medical care by cost shifting for the care of the uninsured and further
strain an already over-burdened system for providing health care access
to low-income populations, Therefore
be it resolved that the Washington State Public Health Association
supports enactment of a stable, sufficient, dedicated and equitable
public health funding source to support essential public health services
that are always working for a safer and healthier |