Washoe County’s District Health Officer Kevin Dick is praising the passage of a senate bill that will allocate more funding for public health in Nevada.
Senate Bill 118, which will establish a Public Health Improvement Fund to provide flexible funding for community public health needs, was passed unanimously by the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services on Thursday.
“We were pleased that … the Committee clearly understood the need to provide this funding to support public health and acted decisively and unanimously to move the bill forward,” Dick said. “We will continue to work to ensure that the legislature as a whole understands that need and makes that funding a reality by delivering this bill for the Governor’s signature.
“We know our workforce isn’t adequate to serve a community of our size and this funding would allow us to address that deficiency and enable us to better address health inequities that were so tragically exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The fund, if approved, would allocate about $5 per capita to local health authorities, allowing them more flexibility to address community health needs. The bill requires an annual report on how the funds were spent.
Dick, along with other state health district leaders, provided information on the importance of providing flexible non-categorical funding to address community public health needs and priorities. Any money that Washoe County Health District receives from the state now can only be spent for specific purposes.
If the Bill is passed, it could bring the state up to 44th or 45th in the nation in terms of investment in public health, as Nevada is currently tied for the lowest state investment in public health – making the Silver State one of the worse funded in the country.
There was no opposition expressed to the bill. It will get further consideration at the legislature before Gov. Joe Lombardo receives the bill for final approval.
SOURCE: WCHD
