In public health, the goal is to prevent disease or injury in a whole population—a city, state or country, for example. That's different from the goal of health care, which is to care for individuals.

An example may make the distinction sharper: A public health approach to cancer could involve a statewide public awareness campaign about the risk factors for cancer such as smoking or sun exposure, while a health care approach would focus on educating individuals about such risk factors. 

This Web site focuses on more than 20 major public health issues facing states today.  By clicking on the terms listed on the left, you'll learn about these issues and why they matter to states. You'll also find links to more information—links that state policymakers will find especially useful.

On this page are resources from:
Healthy States	Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality	National Center for Health Statistics
Trust for America's Health	United Health Foundation

The Healthy States Initiative, a partnership between CSG and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hosted nine Web conferences that examined public health issues affecting state government and offered examples of promising practices. The Web conferences provided a base for state legislators to learn from one another and gather valuable information from health experts to create state responses to public health issues including smoking, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, oral health and cancer. The Public Health Tool Kit includes compact discs of all nine archived Web conferences and the published issue briefs.

Would you like information about cost and quality of health services, medical practice patterns, access to health care programs, or outcomes of treatment at the national, State, and local levels?  All of this information can be found on HCUPnet.  The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) provides a free, on-line query system that provides users with instant access to the largest set of publicly available all-payer hospital care databases.  Click here for more information.

In partnership with the American Public Health Association and the Partnership for Prevention, the United Health Foundation released the 2007 America's Health Rankings: A Call to Action for People & Their Communities. One of the most comprehensive reports on health in America, it ranks the overall health of each state through in-depth state-by-state analyses and provides startling new findings on obesity and health disparities among minorities.  

Find out how your state ranks and how you can improve it.