Report calls for doubling nation's public health spending - The Hill's Healthwatch

Report calls for doubling nation's public health spending - The Hill's Healthwatch

The United States spends more on healthcare but lags behind the rest of the industrialized world in life expectancy and childhood mortality because the government "chronically" underfunds public health systems, the Institute of Medicine argues in a new report out Tuesday.

The report calls for doubling federal spending on public health from $11.6 billion to $24 billion a year "as a starting point to meet the needs of public health departments." The report points out that Americans spent $8,086 per person in medical care in 2009 versus $251 in public health spending.

The IOM's Committee on Public Health Strategies to Improve Health goes on to recommend that government advisers develop a "minimum package of public health services" that every community should receive from its state and local health departments. It suggests creating a new transaction tax on medical care services to help pay for the increased spending, which over time could lower healthcare costs by reducing obesity and tobacco use.

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