title
A MOTION approving a Policy Framework for the Health of the Public.
body
WHEREAS, the county is responsible for providing regional public health services to the one million eight hundred thousand residents in King County, as well as the hundreds of thousands of workers and tourists who enter the county each day, and
WHEREAS, examples of the wide range of public health services provided by the county include: ensuring food and water are safe for consumption; monitoring, preventing and controlling communicable diseases and environmental health threats; assessing the health of the public; providing vaccines and assuring the immunization of children and adults; assuring emergency preparedness and response; promoting healthy behaviors and preventing chronic diseases and injury; and assuring personal health care services to uninsured and underserved individuals, and
WHEREAS, regional public health services are supported by significant contributions from the county's general fund, state funds and a variety of federal sources, and
WHEREAS, over the past decade, revenues supporting public health services, such as the motor vehicle excise tax, have been eliminated, reduced or limited, requiring reductions in public health programs and significant increases in the level of county general fund resources, and
WHEREAS, the significant increases in county general fund resources to support public health are not sustainable over the long term, and
WHEREAS, the cost of providing public health services is increasing, and
WHEREAS, the need for and scope of public health services provided is increasing as new mandates are instituted, new communicable disease and environmental health threats emerge, health disparities within the population of King County intensify, the number of medically underserved increases and the burden of preventable chronic disease grows, and
WHEREAS, in Ordinance 15083, the ordinance adopting the 2005 King County budget, the council a...

Click here for full text