The health of the American people lags behind that of other developed countries. Federal public health agencies have a wide range of responsibilities and functions, including public health research, funding, and oversight of direct health care providers. It has been a long time since changes have been made to the way the federal government structures its health care roles and programs outside of Medicare and Medicaid (Trust, 2013). With health care reform on the horizon, now is the time to invest time and money in prevention, not medicine, by improving health and disease prevention a top priority. Funding efforts at all levels of the public health continuum must focus on developing programs aimed at cutting-edge initiatives such as smoking cessation, improving nutrition, providing safe workplaces and increasing physical activity at all ages of the population. People should have equal access to preventative medicine and quality education. State and local public health departments across the country have the responsibility to improve health in workplaces, schools and communities by identifying major health problems within society and developing a plan to improve them. Obstacles that the public health system has faced over the years include: changes throughout the health system that support cost containment and improved health, and an increase in the number of people receiving 'insurance coverage for direct prevention services; reduction in the number of qualified public health professionals and funding at all levels of government; there is an increasing emphasis on accountability, with higher expectations for demonstrating a return on investment in terms of costs and improved health (Trust, 2013). In the near future, health services ...... middle of paper ......ion. The Secretary of HHS will fund research on public health services and systems to examine best prevention practices. Federal health programs will collect and report data by race, ethnicity, primary language, and any other indicators of disparity. The CDC will evaluate employer wellness best practices and provide an educational campaign and technical assistance to promote the benefits of health promotion in the workplace. A new CDC program will help state, local and tribal public health agencies improve surveillance and responses to infectious diseases and other important conditions. An Institute of Medicine conference on pain care will assess the adequacy of pain assessment, treatment and management; identify and remove barriers to appropriate pain care; increase awareness; and report to Congress on findings and recommendations.