INSIGHT & INSPIRATION FROM APHA’S 2012 MIDYEAR MEETING

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Survive All In This Friends Prevention, Strategies
& Thrive Together For Health Opportunity & Equity for Health
Letter from Dr. Benjamin
Dear fellow public health practitioners, researchers, educators and supporters,
On Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009 — the first day of APHA’s 137th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia —
the U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of a bill that would eventually lead to the
historic passage of real health reform. It was a pretty good day for public health. Fast forward
to June 28, 2012 — the closing day of APHA’s Midyear Meeting in Charlotte, N.C. — when the
Supreme Court upheld nearly every provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
That was a very good day for public health.
Hearing the long-awaited news surrounded by hundreds of fellow public health workers —
the very people who are bearing witness to the law’s real impact on people’s health and wellbeing
— was incredible. But in typical public health fashion, after a few minutes filled with
celebratory cheers, ecstatic hugs and audible sighs of relief, the conference room quickly
filled with that determined energy to make a difference. It was time to get back to work.
The Supreme Court’s decision was good news, but the Affordable Care Act and its landmark
investments in public health and prevention are hardly on sturdy ground. Attempts to repeal the
law or strip the law of funds to implement it will likely continue. This comes on top of serious
cuts to federal, state and local public health budgets. At the same time in our communities,
people are still becoming sick and disabled, and are dying from preventable disease and injury.
Significant health disparities persist, shining a glaring light on our moral obligation as a nation
to eliminate health inequity. The need for public health is clear, but — as was heard again and
again in Charlotte — our resources and capacity are truly in peril.