The Federal Budget Is Dangerous to Your Health

Abstract

y a c; ORE than a millennium ago, one of the great physicians { of the early Middle Ages, Isaac ben Solomon Israeli, stated simply the credo of every public health officer. 1he need of the physician," he wrote, "is twofold: p reserving health and curing disease. The demand for (tISe)< ithe former is greater than for the latter for it is better for man that he avoid becoming ill than that he become ill and be cured." President Carter recently echoed that sentiment when he stated: "Our fascination with the more glorious 'pound of cure' has tended to dazzle us into ignoring the often more effective 'ounce of prevention.' " And yet such a self-evident truth is having a difficult time gaining acceptance in the proposed federal budget for health. The federal government continues to pour money into the treatment of illness, while funds for programs of prevention and health promotion represent less than two percent of recommended health expenditures in the President's proposed fiscal year 1981 budget. To make matters worse, proposed cuts in even this modest amount will further curtail services essential to our well-being. The good health most Americans enjoy and take for granted is no accident. In large measure it is a product of the vigilance of state and local health agencies who see to it that our water is pure, our food and milk and restaurants safe. Control of communicable illnesses such as tuberculosis and venereal disease and of disease-bearing insects and rodents is the responsibility of these agencies. Recently public health departments have also assumed the burden of dealing with the health effects of environmental hazards such as PCBs, Mirex, and Kepone. The federal government contributes to these state and local health endeavors principally through two programs: Health Incentive Grants to States (Section 314[d] of the Public Health Service Act), and Formula Grants to States for Preventive Health Services Programs (Section 315). In the present fiscal year, the Administraton reduced considerably the appropriation for Health Incentive Grants. We are already seeing the sen-