On February 7, 2025, the Vermont Legislature’s Public Health Caucus hosted its first meeting of the new biennium. Their speaker was Pam Berenbaum, Professor of the Practice and Associated Director of Program Engagement at Middlebury College.
Pam’s presentation was titled:
The Business Case for Investing in Public Health
A recording of her presentation is available immediately below, and a copy of her slides can be found here.
Thank you to all the legislators and community members who came to this meeting. Pam’s expertise and presentation added compelling insights into the financial benefits of public health investments. A few slides that really stayed with me included:
US health spending and outcomes compared to peer nations. We spend so much more on health per person, yet our health outcomes are worse. Much worse.
Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that, although health care accounts for only 20% of a population’s health, in the US health care monopolizes 90% of all medical expenditures.
And it seems as if we are in a downward spiral. The more we need to spend on health care, the less we invest in other critical aspects of population health. This leads to sicker people needing more expensive care and further cuts to the environmental and community investments that could begin to reverse the cycle.
But the data is there – CONCLUSIVELY – to show that investments in upstream public health programs save money for individuals and taxpayers. One example: the cost of adding fluoride to water systems has an ROI in avoided health care costs of 3,700%.
As public health advocates, we must get better at tying the cost of public health investments to the monetary benefits they produce.
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