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Center for Policy Research

Report

Improving Public Health Safety Nets after an Economic Recession

Sanjay Basu

September 2014

Abstract

When we say "here’s what’s going on with our nation’s health," how do we know the answer? Where is the data coming from? How can we best evaluate our public health system? We’re talking about it every day on CNN given the Ebola scare. What do we mean by our "public health system"? The author argues that we should expand our definition to mean something more than hospitals and clinics, or doctors and nurses. In particular, the author argues that some of our non-health programs that we have as part of the safety net actually make a bigger health impact than some of our public health programs. In trying to pursue the answer to the question of why this is the case can lend us some pretty important insights.

This report is sponsered by The Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture series, which is jointly sponsored by the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the Central New York Community Foundation, Inc. and is administered by the Center for Policy Research and The Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health.

The Center for Policy Research at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University supports policy-relevant research and disseminates knowledge that enables leaders to make informed policy decisions and provide effective solutions to critical challenges in our local region, state, country and across the world.