Health bosses fighting hard to keep department alive

Despite assurances from veteran lawmakers that the state Department of Health will not be closed to save money, division heads in the department continue to fight for their jobs.

Executive director Dr. David Sundwall is working hard to sway lawmakers, who are threatening to parse out duties to other agencies and leave all administrative positions except Medicaid director unfunded next year. He has given them options for imposing the cutbacks lawmakers say are requisite to balance the 2010 state budget. Internally, staff members and other division heads say they can find a way to live with the cuts but question the need to junk the department by imposing sharp v-shaped cuts when a shallow "u" will do.

Sundwall's predecessor and former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. James Mason, said dissolving the department would be tantamount to pushing Utah's model public health system "back into the dark ages."

More recent history shows that shuffling departments is a no-win situation, Mason said, noting that morphing the health department's environmental quality duties into a stand-alone department did the opposite of saving money.

"I would urge you to maintain one of the best health departments in the United States," Mason said. "And I just want to say, that has been built on the basis of the support that it has received from the Legislature and from the governor, clear back from 1980 to the present. The least worthy reason for dismantling is financial distress."

When a department's services are blended, critical programs are disconnected, "and they can drift off like a helium balloon. People without enough or even any experience can be making decisions that simply don't apply," he added. "With health-care costs out of control, now is not the time to demote the director of health-care activities."

Sundwall said although the public tends to view health department services as strictly for the poor and needy, the department protects and promotes the public health for all Utahns. "And by any measure and under any circumstance, prosperity and health go together."

Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, a dentist and senior member of the health and human services budget/legislation review committees, stated again Thursday that "we are not going to dismantle the health department."

The budget discussions throughout the week have been testy in the appropriations subcommittee and became strained enough Thursday night that Christensen simply left after the committee refused to adjourn.

"I think we've done enough damage for the evening," he said just before walking out.

Christensen, who has made clear his dissatisfaction with lawmakers who seem to be unnecessarily rushing to impose deep, budget cutbacks in health and human services, was visibly upset with some fellow committee members whose questioning of human services executive director Lisa-Michelle Church devolved into what could be described as badgering.

E-mail: jthalman@desnews.com