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Percent of Health Dollars for Public Health measures the percentage of total
health expenditures in a state that are targeted for public or population health programs
and initiatives. A high percentage indicates that the state has recognized the cost-effectiveness
of public health and is prioritizing its health spending accordingly.
This measure, along with Per
Capita Public Health Spending, is new to the 2004 Edition.
These two measures replace the earlier measure, Support for Public Health Care. The source
data is identical to the previous measure, however the current method more clearly illustrates
two critical aspects of public health spending: the priority of the program relative to other
programs and total expenditures. The total weight of these two measures has been set at 5.0
percent of the model, identical to the weight of the single measure they replaced. Current
public health spending may include considerable amounts of funding designated for homeland
security efforts. It is too early to know the effectiveness of these expenditures on the
health of the overall population.
Table 27 displays the 2004 ranks, based on
2001 data (National Association of State Budget
Officers). It ranges from a high of 34.5 percent of the state health budget spent on public
health in Alaska to a low of under 2 percent in Georgia, New Jersey, North Carolina,
Connecticut, Idaho and Louisiana.
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