The author discusses how state and federal governments have for decades shared responsibility for funding public health care through programs such as Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), as well as through federal grants. However, recent cuts to federal health and safety net programs mandated in legislation, such as H.R. 1, will weaken the country's future response to crises such as pandemics and natural disasters, and leave states to bear a bigger share of the cost. As a result fewer people will have access to health care or nutrition benefits. The author says that the short-term funding that immediately addressed the COVID-19 pandemic stabilized family incomes, insurance coverage, food availability, and nonprofit support organizations. Long-term interventions by governments could have replicated those short-term efforts, and supported broad health and economic improvements, Instead, under legislation such as H.R. 1, program funding has been cut, and the opportunity has been lost. 

This article introduces a special section in the American Journal of Public Health about health and social policy changes driven by the urgency of the pandemic.