Minnesota Department of Health outlines governor’s budget priorities: infectious disease, operating adjustments and multiple fee changes

Commissioner Brooke Cunningham told the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on Jan. 28 that Minnesota’s public health system faces rising demand and shrinking per-capita local public-health capacity, and she urged sustained state funding to preserve infectious-disease response and other programs.

“At MDH, our mission is to protect, maintain, and improve the health of all Minnesotans,” Commissioner Brooke Cunningham said in opening remarks. She said the department works across many areas beyond infectious disease, including clean water, newborn screening, WIC, chronic disease prevention and the statewide trauma system.

Cunningham told senators the state’s public-health investment is small relative to total health spending: local public-health departments collectively manage roughly $400 million statewide while public- and private-sector health-care spending totals about $66.8 billion. She said the number of local…