Year: 2011
Funding: NNPHI PHS2 Award
Status: Completed
Overview
This mixed-methods project has three primary aims: (1) characterize the budget-setting and priority-setting processes within state health departments and across specific divisions (Preparedness, Environmental Health Sciences, and Maternal/Child Health) using secondary data analysis; (2) model several federal financial reduction scenarios and consequent public health impacts, using ASTHO 2010 Profile and federal public health funding data; and (3) integrate findings from aims (1) and (2) to identify likely decision-making factors, criteria, pressures, and opportunities practitioners will face under federal austerity measures, with a focus on public health practice and policy implications. With looming federal budget deficits and greater emphasis on funding health care through the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion, it is anticipated that public health federal funds will be reduced, perhaps significantly so, in coming years. As such, it is critical to the future of public health to better understand, manage, and quantify the potential impact of federal austerity measures. As collaboration with ASTHO, this project will develop products in "real time" to assure relevance and contributions to current budget debates. Additionally, practitioners will receive tools to help contend with budget cuts and proactively plan for impending cuts with a focus on assuring adequate public health protections.
Publications
- Setting Budgets and Priorities at State Health Agencies (JPHMP 2014)
- Budget- and priority-setting criteria at state health agencies in times of austerity: a mixed-methods study (AJPH 2014)
- Tradeoffs in resource allocation at state health agencies (JPHMP 2014)
- Budgetary decision making during times of scarcity (JPHMP 2012)
Contacts
Thomas Burke & Beth Resnick
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Research Areas