Utah gets less money from feds for disease prevention than other states

WASHINGTON — Utah ranks near the bottom for disease prevention funding from the federal government, receiving less than average compared to other states.

A new study released Monday ranked Utah 34 out of 50 states in the amount of federal funding received last year to support disease and injury prevention programs

According to the study, Utah received $18.19 per person — a total of $50.6 million. Other Western states averaged $19.22 per person.

"We don't ever do real well," Dr. David Sundwall, the Utah Health Department's executive director, said of Utah in this annual report. "It's always predicted or expected."

He also agreed that Utah is a victim of its own success. The state is consistently ranked as one of the healthiest states in most annual surveys, and Sundwall said that as a result, it usually doesn't get much money from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The report, titled "Shortchanging America's Health: A State-By-State Look at Public Health Funding in the United States," found that overall federal spending for public health has been flat for nearly five years — at approximately $19.23 per person — which has not kept pace with inflation.

States in the Midwest received the least amount of federal funding for public health at $16.50 per person. Northeastern States received the highest funding at $19.80 per person.

While federal funding has dropped in Utah over the last year, Sundwall says Utahns should consider themselves lucky that it hasn't dropped more dramatically, considering the state of the economy.

Federal funding that goes to states for public health varies significantly from state to state, from a low of $13.33 per person in Virginia to a high of $58.65 in Alaska. The "Shortchanging America's Health" report also concluded that across the country, nationwide state funding for public health dropped by $392 million in the past year. Funding in Utah decreased by 5.4 percent in 2009.

The study was conducted by The Trust for America's Health, a nonprofit group in Washington, D.C., and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a health philanthropy group based in Princeston, N.J.

"Public health departments are responsible for finding ways to address the systemic reasons why some communities are healthier than others and for developing policies and programs to remove obstacles that get in the way of making health choices possible," said Jeffrey Levi, Ph.D., executive director of TFAH. "But right now, public health departments do not have the resources they need to improve health in communities. Our ability to address the geographic and racial/ethnic disparities in health is limited by our failure to invest adequately in creating a modernized public health system."

The full report is available at www.healthyamericans.org.

e-mail: lynn@desnews.com