Our politics is ill-suited to public health investment.
A 2017 review found that health protection campaigns like vaccination had a median return on investment of $34 for every $1 spent. A lead paint control intervention even had a return of $221 for every $1 spent.
Yet we routinely do things like reduce dental care reimbursement in state Medicaid programs, increasing the likelihood that a person will go to the emergency room for a much more expensive dental emergency. Decisions that not only forego the low-hanging fruit, but incur more costs unnecessarily.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, the CDC's budget was only $8 billion.