About the Commission

Public Comment

The Governor's Public Health Commission actively sought input from the public through an online REDCap form. A summary of the comments was read into the record at each meeting and shared with members for their review. Those summaries are included in the meeting notes below.

Listening Tours

Seven listening tours were held around the state to solicit public input. The tour opened with a brief presentation on the Commission and an overview of public health, but the majority of time was allocated to taking public testimony. Listening tours were over the lunch hour to maximize the opportunity for participation. Each speaker was allotted three minutes for verbal comments on one of the subject areas under review by the Commission, but written testimony was also accepted. The summaries from the listening tours can be found in the April and May meeting notes below.

Listening tour locations and dates
Listening tour slideshow and hearing guidelines
Press release

Public health services are delivered unevenly across the state, which means where you live can impact your access to core services that can improve your health. These differences affect all Hoosiers. For example, Indiana’s high rates of smoking and obesity contribute to our high rates of diabetes, heart and lung disease, and cancer. More focus and investment on public health promotion and prevention activities will lead to better outcomes in these areas and many others.

The goal is to help local health departments work with local businesses, healthcare providers, schools, and other government and non-governmental organizations to locally promote and improve public health. This will be established through community partnerships and collaboration, with the Indiana Department of Health providing more financial and technical assistance.

The recommendations allow for local health boards to provide more ways for others to get involved, particularly professionals with a background in a public health field, members of the public, or representatives from some cities and towns, depending on the county’s population.

The commission has proposed increasing Indiana’s public health spending from $55 per person to closer to $91, the national average. That would bring Indiana’s public health investment more in line with other states and lead to improvements in Hoosier health and safety.  Increased funding would help ensure the delivery of core public health services in every county. The funding would also help IDOH better support local health department at the regional and district levels. The bulk of this increased funding would go directly to local health departments to implement programming at the local level that best reflects the needs and priorities of their communities.

Local health departments are currently funded primarily by local property taxes but also receive a limited appropriation from the state. Under this proposal, they would be eligible to receive additional state funding based on various factors to help improve public health services available in their jurisdictions. Local officials would vote whether to take this funding every five years, and by accepting, agree to have their local health department provide the core public health services.

The goal is to deliver core public health services in every county. This may include adding staff for a variety of roles, depending on the area of need, from disease prevention and education to food protection and preventing substance abuse. This could also include partnerships with community-based organizations. Increased public health funding would allow LHDs to better address the specific needs of their communities to achieve the best health and wellbeing for their counties so all Hoosiers can reach their optimal health.

For example, life expectancy varies by as many as nine years in Indiana, depending on in the county where you live. Increased public health funding would allow local health departments to better address the needs of their communities to achieve the best health and wellbeing for all Hoosiers.

The IDOH is committed to helping local health departments find other money, including more grants and insurance reimbursement for patient care services. There are more federal dollars that we can access, but those won’t be enough to meet all the need.

Helping more Hoosier babies reach their first birthday has been a priority for public health for many years. And while we are making progress, these recommendations are about more than infant mortality and safe sleep. While those continue to be on top of the public health list of priorities, this program aims at improving whole-child wellness as they grow.

We want to improve access to emergency medications while maintaining appropriate parental consent guidelines. Parents are the decision makers when it comes to their child’s health. This would be an effort to improve access to important services that can make a vital difference in a child’s health and education. This would be an effort to improve access to potential life-saving medications such as epinephrine for a severe allergic reaction, an albuterol inhaler for severe asthma, or naloxone to reverse a drug overdose.