A new voice to defend Public Health

By Nancy Amidei

When the City of Seattle or King County takes up the budget, the hearing room is sure to be crowded. Lining up at the microphones are people angry about paying taxes, about the state of their roads or sidewalks, or about some personal issue.

Thanks to the Seattle Human Services Coalition and the King County Alliance for Human Services, there are always people on hand to speak up for human services – for child care, for domestic violence prevention, for senior programs. But until recently, there was never anyone on hand to speak up for Public Health.

Now there is: A small but growing group called simply People for Public Health. And the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans was in on its creation.

When things are going well, we don’t think about our Public Health agencies. We take for granted that somebody is:
*Protecting our food and water supplies,
*Maintaining emergency medical services,
*Providing vaccines (for example, for children during flu season),
*Preventing injury and violence,
*Promoting healthy eating and exercise,
*Controlling communicable diseases…and more.

If those functions were NOT being attended to, we’d all be at risk.

And that could happen. In 1999, when the old, progressive Motor Vehicle Excise tax was replaced by a flat $30 tax per car, Public Health agencies across the state lost their major source of funding. The “backfill account” later established by the legislature never did fully replace it. And since 2009 – when needs are rising and more people are seeking health care from a Public Health clinic – Public Health has had to absorb still deeper cuts – everything from staff layoffs to reduction or elimination of basic health services.

Like local governments across the state, Seattle and King County now face still another round of cuts in Public Health staffing and functions. Being considered for possible reductions are the HIV/AIDS program, public health visits to pregnant women, jail-related health services (chiefly, how medications are dispensed), adult health visits at the East Gate Health clinic and nearly 90 full-time equivalent staff.

That’s why we’ve formed People for Public Health, a Seattle-King County grassroots group committed to safe and healthy communities. Our members are social and health professionals, retirees, health sciences students, people working with low-income populations and people from the community.

We’re showing up at hearings on the city and county budgets, using our two minutes at the microphone to ask that public health agencies be kept strong enough to carry out their mission.

All of us have a vested interest in public health. Today, more than ever, public health needs strong voices. If you wish to be such a voice, or simply to keep in touch with our work by email, send your contract information to People for Public Health: amidei@drizzle.com.