Public Health System Transformation Update Newsletter
December 2025 | View all system transformation newsletters

Why Minnesota Needs Sustained Investment in Public Health 

Public health workers have a wealth of experience and expertise. They cooperate across sectors to diagnose health issues happening broadly across the community and work to prevent health problems before they start.

However, Minnesota’s public health system is funded in large part by a series of categorical, prescriptive, time-limited grants that often don’t help jurisdictions meet community need, use community assets, or focus on population level prevention work. The way our system is funded also limits public health from scaling up when it’s most needed during emergencies, subjecting us to an ongoing funding roller-coaster of panic booms and neglect busts.

The broad, societal factors that shape our health for better or worse are our constant companions—we can’t escape them. Before we eat healthy and nutritious food, that food has to be available and affordable to us. Before we buckle up in the car, the car manufacturer needs to have installed a seat belt, and we need to know that other drivers won’t be impaired or distracted. Before we get enough sleep, we need to snuggle into a bedroom that’s free of mold, lead, and other pollutants, in a living space that we can afford.

Above: Chelsie Huntley (L) and Nick Kelley (R) of the Joint Leadership Team discuss the value of investing in public health with the Minnesota Senate Health and Human Services Committee, January 2025. Photo credit: Minnesota Senate.

Policies impact our health by shaping our surroundings, as much as our individual choices do. Public health helps shape these policies.

Imagine what our businesses, communities, neighborhoods, and families could do with the money saved on medical care if Minnesota invested in more of the policies, systems, and surroundings that prevent sickness and harm in the first place, and if our public health workers had the resources to dig down to the root cause of health problems and help prevent them in the first place. 

Read more in the Joint Leadership Team's report to the Minnesota Legislature from earlier this year: Public Health System Development in Minnesota (PDF).

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