Proposition Two: Effective public health is dependent on sufficient social investment Overall, public health is losing comparative budget parity with the rising costs of curative medicine in the developed nations. In the United States, with overall medical costs once gain breaking out into double digit annual increases, the relative share of national budgets devoted to public health declines. Especially in times of economic downturn, and the absence of compelling crisis conditions, social investment in public health is uncertain in most national budgets.