Center for American Progress

Donate

Public Health

Public health helps prevent disease and improve the health of communities—primarily through efforts outside of traditional medical care, such as tracking and predicting emerging and persistent threats, responding to health risks and events, and promoting health through education and policymaking. Public health organizations promote cleaner air and water, better sanitation, food safety, safer environments with less violence and injury, disease prevention, and access to vaccines, among other priorities.

The Center for American Progress advocates and supports efforts to strengthen the public health system’s basic infrastructure to accomplish these essential functions.

Featured Experts

More Experts

Latest

Compact View

  • Filter by
  • Type
    • Type
    Show Results
  • Date
    • Date
    • Date

    • to

    Custom range Fixed range
  • Topic
    • Topic
    Show Results
  • State
    • State
    Show Results
  • Toggle Search

  • 120 Results

Clear filters

The Trump Administration’s Attack on Environmental Protections Will Increase Cancer-Causing Pollution Report
In the background of the view of a residential street, smokestacks at the Hugh L. Spurlock Generating Station are seen in Maysville, Kentucky.

The Trump Administration’s Attack on Environmental Protections Will Increase Cancer-Causing Pollution

The Trump administration’s plan to torpedo air pollution limits and cancer prevention programs while ripping away health care and cancer treatment and canceling clean energy investments will increase preventable cancer cases among Americans—all to enhance polluters’ profits and cut taxes for the superrich.

Cathleen Kelly, Leo Banks, Jill Rosenthal

What the Trump Administration, RFK Jr., and the MAHA Report Got Wrong About Improving Children’s Health Article
A health care provider vaccinates a toddler in the leg as the toddler and his father look on.

What the Trump Administration, RFK Jr., and the MAHA Report Got Wrong About Improving Children’s Health

The Make America Healthy Again Commission’s strategy report underscores the importance of childhood nutrition but casts doubt on proven health strategies; fails to acknowledge the Trump administration’s harm to children’s health; and distracts from effective strategies to prevent chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity and to ensure access to vaccines, food security, and clean air and water.

Jill Rosenthal, Steven Woolf

Politicians Don’t Understand Disability In the News

Politicians Don’t Understand Disability

In an op-ed published by Inside Sources, Mia Ives-Rublee argues that Congress should use the inclusive framing provided by the Americans with Disability Act to boost support for this growing community of Americans.

Inside Sources

Mia Ives-Rublee

On Its 60th Anniversary, Medicaid Is Under Attack Article
Demonstrators gather in protest of Medicaid cuts outside of the U.S. Capitol.

On Its 60th Anniversary, Medicaid Is Under Attack

Historic program cuts enacted by congressional Republicans and the Trump administration threaten the health and financial security of millions of Americans.

Andrea Ducas

How To Make America Sick Article
A patient waits for radiation treatment.

How To Make America Sick

The Trump administration’s plan to “Make America Healthy Again” will make Americans’ health worse.

Donald Berwick

The Trump Administration’s Assault on Environmental Protections Will Give Polluters a Free Pass While Causing Millions of Asthma Attacks Report
Cars sit in traffic as the sun sets behind a veil of smog.

The Trump Administration’s Assault on Environmental Protections Will Give Polluters a Free Pass While Causing Millions of Asthma Attacks

The Trump administration’s plan to weaken clean air protections could cause more than 10,000 asthma attacks per day while cutting lifesaving asthma prevention programs and as House Republicans seek to slash pollution reduction efforts, clean technology investments, and essential health care coverage—all to give tax breaks to billionaires.

Cathleen Kelly, Jill Rosenthal, Leo Banks

States Must Lead the Way To Protect Workers From Extreme Heat Article
A traffic warden holding up a stop sign with the sun shining behind him

States Must Lead the Way To Protect Workers From Extreme Heat

In the absence of federal action to protect workers from the rising dangers of exposure to extreme heat on the job, states must take the lead—and can look to existing and proposed standards from other localities for guidance.

Jill Rosenthal, Reema Bzeih

Opinion: How Trump’s push to privatize Medicare would be a disaster for seniors In the News

Opinion: How Trump’s push to privatize Medicare would be a disaster for seniors

In an op-ed published by MarketWatch, Andrea Ducas and David Lipschutz explain why the Trump administration wants to make Medicare Advantage the default enrollment for all Medicare recipients and how doing so would devastate Americans' wallets.

MarketWatch

Andrea Ducas, David Lipschutz

The Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans’ Plan To Make Billionaires Richer May Make Americans Sicker Article
Cars travel on the highway to and from Los Angeles, which is enveloped in smog.

The Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans’ Plan To Make Billionaires Richer May Make Americans Sicker

The Trump administration and congressional Republicans are working to finance their plans to cut taxes for the ultrawealthy—and they are cutting environmental protection and clean energy programs, endangering American lives and livelihoods, as part of this effort.

Shannon Baker-Branstetter, Lucero Marquez

Research in Ruin: Slashing the NIH Will Stifle Development of Lifesaving Medical Treatments and Harm the Economy Past Event

Research in Ruin: Slashing the NIH Will Stifle Development of Lifesaving Medical Treatments and Harm the Economy

Please join the Center for American Progress for the next in a series of virtual events highlighting the impact that DOGE’s cuts are having on the lives of everyday Americans; this event will focus on how cuts to NIH will limit progress in preventing and curing diseases and damage the economy in the process.

Online only

The Trump Administration Has Invited Power Plants to Emit More Toxic Pollution in a Giveaway to Corporate Polluters Article
The sun sets behind an oil refinery in Wilmington, California.

The Trump Administration Has Invited Power Plants to Emit More Toxic Pollution in a Giveaway to Corporate Polluters

In an unprecedented move, the Trump administration has offered fossil fuel power plants and industrial sources the opportunity to ask, by email, for an exemption from the Clean Air Act, enabling them to avoid compliance with emission standards that protect Americans.

Leo Banks, Lucero Marquez

How the Trump Administration’s Agenda To Eliminate Environmental Protections and Promote the Fossil Fuel Industry Harms Public Health Fact Sheet
A view of DTE Energy's River Rouge power plant in Michigan.

How the Trump Administration’s Agenda To Eliminate Environmental Protections and Promote the Fossil Fuel Industry Harms Public Health

The Trump administration’s plan to abandon environmental and public health safeguards threatens the health and lives of Americans while lining the pockets of corporate polluters.

Cathleen Kelly, Jasia Smith

The Trump Administration’s Cancellation of Funding for Environmental Protections Endangers Americans’ Health While Draining Their Wallets Fact Sheet
People walk in Central Park amid hazy conditions in New York City.

The Trump Administration’s Cancellation of Funding for Environmental Protections Endangers Americans’ Health While Draining Their Wallets

The Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate environmental protections and funds that reduce pollution in working-class communities threaten public health and increase costs for families.

Cathleen Kelly, Jasia Smith

CAP’s Comment on the Department of Labor’s Proposed Regulation on Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Notice in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings Article

CAP’s Comment on the Department of Labor’s Proposed Regulation on Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Notice in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings

The Center for American Progress submitted a comment letter to the Department of Labor on the agency’s proposed rule to protect the rising number of workers who are exposed to extreme heat conditions that cause injury, illness, and death across the United States.

Jill Rosenthal, Rosa Barrientos-Ferrer, Kate Petosa

How Cuts to NIH Research Funding Would Hurt States Article
A sign stands near an entrance to the National Institutes of Health.

How Cuts to NIH Research Funding Would Hurt States

Proposed changes to the National Institutes of Health’s $48 billion budget would risk jobs, threaten state economies, and hamper progress toward prevention and treatment of diseases such as cancer.

Marquisha Johns

6 Ways Cities and Counties Can Reduce Gun Violence Report
A row of houses is seen from above in Northern Baltimore, Maryland.

6 Ways Cities and Counties Can Reduce Gun Violence

Cities and counties across the country are taking meaningful steps toward reducing gun violence by implementing a set of accountability and prevention strategies capable of healing communities while breaking cycles of violence.

Allison Jordan

Rising Extreme Heat Compounds the U.S. Maternal Health Crisis Report
A midwife picks greens for a pregnant mother and her daughter.

Rising Extreme Heat Compounds the U.S. Maternal Health Crisis

Policymakers must act to protect the health and safety of pregnant people—including by passing the Protecting Moms and Babies Against Climate Change Act, increasing access to indoor home cooling, and quickly adopting a federal occupational heat standard.

Amina Khalique

Protecting Americans From Extreme Heat Past Event

Protecting Americans From Extreme Heat

Join CAP for an event discussing policy proposals and actions that can protect those most vulnerable to extreme heat.

Center for American Progress

Project 2025 Would Eliminate No-Cost Vaccines for 54 Million Medicare Beneficiaries Article
A patient receives a COVID-19 vaccine from a pharmacist at CVS.

Project 2025 Would Eliminate No-Cost Vaccines for 54 Million Medicare Beneficiaries

The Project 2025 agenda would cause Medicare beneficiaries to lose no-cost access to lifesaving vaccines, increasing their health care costs and jeopardizing their health—particularly for older Black and Latino adults and those with lower incomes.

Jill Rosenthal, Marquisha Johns

Executive Summary: Protecting Children From Extreme Heat Is Critical for Their Health, Learning, and Development Fact Sheet
The sun sets in New York City as children cool off.

Executive Summary: Protecting Children From Extreme Heat Is Critical for Their Health, Learning, and Development

This fact sheet summarizes a recent Center of American Progress report highlighting the need for policymakers to take steps to develop heat standards for children and support infrastructure improvements to ensure schools, child care centers, and communities are safe and healthy places for children.

Allie Schneider, Paige Shoemaker DeMio, Hailey Gibbs, 1 More Lisette Partelow

Protecting Children From Extreme Heat Is Critical for Their Health, Learning, and Development Report
Children cool off by playing in a fountain in Brooklyn’s Domino Park, New York, during a heat wave.

Protecting Children From Extreme Heat Is Critical for Their Health, Learning, and Development

As climate change intensifies extreme heat around the globe, policymakers must take steps to develop heat standards for children and support infrastructure improvements to ensure schools, child care centers, and communities are safe and healthy places for children.

Allie Schneider, Paige Shoemaker DeMio, Hailey Gibbs, 1 More Lisette Partelow

How the Affordable Care Act Improved Access to Preventive Health Services Report
Woman lifting smiling daughter into the air

How the Affordable Care Act Improved Access to Preventive Health Services

Congress must protect and build on the Affordable Care Act’s provisions related to disease prevention and health promotion over and beyond the law’s historic health coverage expansions—particularly in light of the recent Braidwood v. Becerra decision.

Marquisha Johns, Jill Rosenthal

This field is hidden when viewing the form

Default Opt Ins

This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form

Variable Opt Ins

This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.