StatePublicHealth.org

• States Act to Ensure Access to Care with Affordable Care Act in the Courts

  Access to quality and affordable health insurance is necessary to protect and improve the public’s health at large. State and territorial health agencies recognize the importance of access to health services-- including access to health insurance coverage--as a key component of health and wellbeing. The U.S. saw significant decreases in the percentage of uninsured residents in the last decade: the percentage of uninsured non-elderly adults decreased from over 44 million in 2013 to just below 27 million in 2016, due in large part to implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

• Six Tips for Sustaining Accreditation

  Initial public health agency accreditation demonstrates that a state, territorial, local, or tribal public health agency has the capacity to provide the 10 Essential Public Health Services, develop and manage an effective health department, and maintain strong communications with the governing entity. Reaccreditation builds upon a health department’s initial accreditation efforts. It focuses on how health departments maintain capacity, ensure accountability, and support continuous quality improvement so that they continue to evolve, improve, and advance. Working with public health agencies to sustain success and momentum from accreditation and prepare for reaccreditation, we identified six key strategies for success.

• States Seek to Increase HPV Vaccine Coverage Through School Immunization Requirements

  Human papillomavirus, or HPV, is a common virus that can lead to certain types of cancer later in life. The virus is spread through intimate skin-to-skin contact and can be transmitted by having sex with someone who has HPV. Almost 80 million Americans are currently infected with HPV and about 14 million become infected each year. While 90 percent of HPV infections go away within a couple of years, they sometimes last longer and can cause 6 types of cancer. Each year, approximately 20,700 cancer cases in women and 14,100 cancer cases in men are caused by HPV. In 2006, the FDA approved a vaccine to prevent HPV infection. The CDC currently recommends that all children at ages 11-12 receive the HPV vaccine and that anyone through the age of 26 who is not vaccinated also be vaccinated. Giving the vaccine at an early age can protect a person long before he or she is ever exposed to the virus.