Public health is commonly confused with publicly funded health care, or indigent care, but these are actually distinct and different activities. Health care, both public and private, can be thought of as direct medical care provided to individuals, while public health is population-based services that are geared toward protecting the health of the public as a whole. Most public health activities do not and cannot differentiate as to poverty level or citizenship status. Population-based efforts such as controlling pollution or contagious diseases by definition benefit the whole population. A productive society relies on a safe and healthy population.
Public health is the first-line defense in maintaining and improving the public's health status.
The success of public health efforts depends on foresight, planning, and the cooperation of health professionals and government officials at all levels. The responsibility for carrying out public health functions falls mostly on the state health department, the state-supported public health regions, and local health departments. The public health regions function as a stopgap when localities do not have a local health department or cannot provide the full range of services needed, but regional offices do not always have the resources or local expertise to provide the level of public health assurance that is needed in communities and that most Texans have come to expect. Local health departments and their sources of funding are changing, and these changes inevitably affect the provision of public health services. Funding for direct medical services, such as Medicaid and maternal and child health grants, has been helping to cover the overhead for many local health departments and their population-based public health activities, but as these services are contracted out due to new rules, funding problems are often an unintended result.