Two non-profit organizations, the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) today released a new report on federal government funding for the fifty states in fiscal year 2008 for publich health disease prevention programs. The report, Shortchanging America's Health: A State-By-State Look at How Federal Public Health Dollars are Spent also examines how the economic downturn could lead to serious cuts to disease prevention and emergency preparedness programs at the state level.

The report found that states receive an average of $17.60 per person from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for public health programs and that annual per capita spending varies widely among the states (ranging from $12.74 and $52.78 per person). The report notes that even at the high end, this level of spending on public health is a tiny fraction of the country's total investment in health. The vast majority of heath spending is invested in treating people after they've become sick. The report authors suggest that spending more money on disease prevention programs up front would lessen the need to spend so much on disease treatment "after the fact."

In tough financial times, the problem of small investment in public health is only expected to get worse, leading to serious long term consequences for the nation’s health and health spending. State funding for public health programs is expected to drop given the widespread budget shortfalls among the states and federal funding is unlikely to make up the all difference. However, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (also known as the stimulus package) includes an additional $1 billion for public health programs for next year, which will help provide additional support in many communities.

Below is a list of the top 10 states that received the most funding per state resident from the CDC in fiscal year 2008, followed in parentheses by the dollar amount of per capita spending. It is no coincidence that the list is populated mostly with America’s smallest states: some public health programs funded by the CDC are not apportioned by population, giving smaller states a larger amount per person.

The top 10 states for federal public health funding per capita are:

1. Alaska ($52.78)
2. Vermont ($35.15)
3. Wyoming ($32.43)
4. Rhode Island ($32.09)
5. New Mexico ($30.94)
6. South Dakota ($29.12)
7. North Dakota ($27.45)
8. Hawaii ($25.55)
9. Delaware ($24.98)
10. Montana ($24.33)

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_{Source: Trust for America’s Health and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Shortchanging America's Health: A State-By-State Look at How Federal Public Health Dollars are Spent, 3/09. http://healthyamericans.org/assets/files/shortchanging09.pdf}

_{Photo: jswieringa, Flickr, Creative Commons}