We need to address the problem of lack of funding by creating a health fund at the state level so that a local health district who has an emergency can go to this fund and apply for a grant to cover an emergency like the TB outbreak at Snow College
BY JENNIFER WEAVER • JEWEAVER@THESPECTRUM.COM • JANUARY 5, 2009
CEDAR CITY - Sen. Dennis Stowell, R-Dist. 28, is sponsoring two bills in the upcoming general session that will establish an emergency fund and create a committee to oversee the allocation of grant money to local public health departments.
Stowell said he became alarmed when last summer the public health department serving the Ephraim area was charged with testing an estimated 300 students, faculty and staff for tuberculosis at Snow College without the necessary funding resources. The monetary drain to treat 70 people whose TB tests came back positive convinced Stowell that a designated fund for unexpected outbreaks of disease or other emergency scenarios was vital for public health departments across the state.
"We need to address the problem of lack of funding by creating a health fund at the state level so that a local health district who has an emergency can go to this fund and apply for a grant to cover an emergency like the TB outbreak at Snow College," Stowell said.
Stowell said the fund would be a 50-50 match with half of the money provided by local health departments and half provided by the state. Rep. Fred R. Hunsaker, R-Dist. 4 (Logan), is co-sponsoring the bill that was passed - though not unanimously - out of the Political Subdivision Interim Committee, on which Stowell serves as chairman.
"The local health departments are having a very difficult time meeting the unusual and unplanned for events," Hunsaker said. "They have no means of funding those type of events so this is just a bill to provide them with some assistance to cover those kind of occurrences that can not be planned for."
Stowell said there is potential for adding federal money into the emergency fund to also use as a financial vehicle to reduce the liability of local health departments.
"It's a good bill and I'm optimistic it will receive support," he said.
A second bill that Stowell is also considers in the best interests of public health departments statewide is the founding of a six-member committee comprised of three representatives from the state and three from the local health departments to discern the allocation of grant money.
"This committee could also be involved in writing the grants to decide who gets the money and how it is going to be distributed, but I think it is an important group of people that needs to be organized and make such decisions because what is happening now is that the state health department is taking the bulk of all the grant funding and that's leaving local health departments scrambling to make ends meet," Stowell said. "The committee would solve the dilemma of where the money goes once it comes in."
The bill does not have a House sponsor yet, but Stowell believes he will find support to at least get the bill out on the Senate floor for debate.
"The local public health departments provide an essential service and they should be receiving the financial support needed to fulfill those responsibilities, such as administering immunizations for example," Stowell said. "I just want to ensure that the public health departments are getting their fair share (of funding.)"
