Adequate funding for local health departments remains a concern for the Kentucky Health Departments Association, Inc.  While it is true that local health departments have received increases in funding through the Kids Now Initiative and the Federal Bioterrorism Grants, it must be pointed out that these funding streams are restricted to specific programs.  They have not been of assistance in helping alleviate past and current funding difficulties.  The Association appreciates the Legislature’s efforts contained in HB 1 to assist local health departments and other quasi-governmental agencies with the substantial increase in the cost of the employer’s share of health insurance coverage for their employees. 

These funding initiatives, however, fail to make up for years of not trending baseline funding streams for inflation or for neglecting to fund mandated services at a level covering the cost of providing those services.  In 1999, the Association submitted to the Legislature a Position Statement entitled Kentucky’s Public Health Funding Crisis.   The issues contained in that paper remain today and have escalated by an additional five years of inflation.  Over those same five years, local health departments have also suffered from budget cuts at both the state and federal level. 

In 1999, the Association requested $8,000,000 in expansion funding for Preventive Health Services.  This would have made up for prior cuts and the lack of trending for inflation dating back to 1988.  At that time, the Association also requested expansion funding of $8,300,000 designed to fully fund the cost to local health departments of providing state mandated environmental health services.  The Association urgently renews its request for these funding expansions which, when trended for inflation, now total $8,740,000 and $9,070,000 respectively. 

Local health departments provide, on a daily basis, a broad array of services to protect and improve the health, not only of individual patients, but all citizens of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.  Their ability to quickly respond to rapidly changing scenarios (such as the Fall 2004 influenza vaccine shortage) is a testament to the dedication and resourcefulness of local health department employees.  

The Institute of Medicine issued a report in 1988 entitled The Future of Public Health.  The words contained on page 2 of that report in the Summary and Recommendations ring as true today as they did years ago – “The wonder is not that American public health has problems, but that so much has been done so well, and with so little.” 

Approved by membership November 17, 2004.