Funding for local health departments ensures effective standards and consistency in addressing new emerging threats, overseeing public health matters, enhanced coordination between local governments, school districts, hospitals, and other nonprofit public health private agencies and public health priorities that are focused on the specific needs of their surrounding community.
Increasing Local Capacity to Fight COVID-19 The ten county and municipal health departments (CMHDs) in Pennsylvania are the main providers of public health services to 42 percent of the commonwealth’s population. Level funding of the appropriation and increasing costs for the CMHDs in the fight against COVID-19 have combined to put budgetary pressure on every local health department. The 2021-22 budget includes $8.3 million to achieve the maximum per capita grant for the existing ten CMHDs allowable by statute. This critical investment in local public health infrastructure is more important now than ever as Pennsylvania unites to fight against COVID-19.