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Explosive Growth in Government Jobs

Can Obama's strong focus on creating jobs pull the United States out of a recession?

Health Care

Now that he is president, Obama has a lot of ground to cover in a very short amount of time on the health care front. His official campaign platform stated, “The Obama-Biden plan provides affordable, accessible health care for all Americans, builds on the existing health care system, and uses existing providers, doctors and plans to implement the plan.” Which health care sectors will be growing over the next four years, and which will be shrinking?

Education + Nutrition: Currently, only about a quarter of schools adhere to nutritional standards for fat content in school lunches. Obama and Biden will work with schools to create more healthful environments for children, including assistance with contract policy development for local vendors, grant support for school-based health screening programs and clinical services, increased financial support for physical education, and educational programs for students.

Public Health: The workforce is currently being challenged by inadequate training for new health threats such as bioterrorism and avian flu. Obama and Biden will expand funding, offer grants for training programs, and build infrastructure support to improve working conditions.

Government: The federal government and state and local governments play critical roles across the full range of disease prevention and health promotion activities. First, working together, governments at all levels should lead the effort to develop a national and regional strategy for public health and align funding mechanisms to support its implementation.

Second, the field of public health would benefit from greater research to optimize organization of the 3,000 health departments currently operating in the US. More collaboration is needed between different levels of government and its private partners, specifically in: communications networks, disaster preparedness, and crisis response.

Third, Obama and Biden will invest in workforce recruitment, and will modernize public health laboratories in order to meet the unique healthcare challenges of the next few decades.