Beyond Insurance Reform: Ensuring that health reform improves health

Although near-universal health coverage will improve health, coverage does not always equate to high-quality medical care. PPACA enables public health departments to address the social and environmental factors that underlie poor health outcomes. Public health departments must ensure safety net services for the uninsured in a funding milieu that suggests these services will no longer be needed. And what about when safety net services also serve a communicable disease control function? Finally, public health departments must promote evidence-based practice, both in medical care and community-based prevention programs.