Public health.

• Author: McKee, Mary
• Position: Projection Implications on the Economy

Public health is all about people and monitoring the health status of the community, diagnosing and investigating health problems, educating and empowering people about health issues, assuring the provision of health care when it is otherwise unavailable, and evaluating outcomes. These are all reliant on accurate and timely data, particularly population data. Even more useful can be projections of population with characteristics such as gender and age and race or ethnicity. The following lists a selection of examples where population projections provide critical inputs:

* Healthy People 2020 and setting the framework for national health objectives.

* Resource planning purposes around the core functions of public health--assessment, policy development, and assurance.

* State and county...