A Note from CSG

In January 2019, The Council of State Governments (CSG) created the CSG Healthy States National Task Force with the purpose of bringing state leaders from across the country together to examine state best practices in the field of health. The task force divided its focus into categories: Leveraging Innovation; State Health Systems Return on Investment; Capacity, Preparedness and Resiliency; and Interventions to Save Lives. At that time, no one could know or truly understand the significance and fortuitousness of this bipartisan initiative and the identified topics.

It would be an understatement to say that the COVID-19 health crisis has created new challenges; but in these unprecedented times, state leaders have been resilient, flexible and have renewed their commitment to work together. In the wake of the global pandemic, as states continue to work to identify and implement policies that will improve health outcomes across their communities, the work of the task force has also continued.

The fifty members of the task force represent 35 states/territories and both the legislative and executive branches of government. Each member has brought not only their time and commitment to the two-year initiative, but also unique expertise and experience. Led by Sen. Bo Watson from Tennessee and Sen. Bryan Townsend from Delaware, the CSG Healthy States National Task Force met in-person, over video and via email to discuss a variety of topics including vaccines, mental health, access to care, emergency management, urban/rural health issues, cost-management, telehealth and delivery of services.

Enclosed, you will find a framework of recommendations that came as result of those discussions. The framework, given much consideration and analysis by both task force members and CSG staff, serves as a guide for all state leaders in understanding strategies with proven success and promising results that can be customized and to serve communities across the nation. We also encourage continued contributions to this document. Comments, questions, stories, recommendations and feedback can be sent directly to healthystates@csg.org.

The mission of CSG is to champion excellence in state government. Efforts like those of this task force, where a diverse groups of state officials from across the country gather to discuss and build consensus around bipartisan solutions to the most pressing issues of our time, both make me proud to serve our states and give me great hope for the future of our democracy and the ability of our states to overcome current and future challenges.

As always, CSG stands ready to serve the states.

DAVID ADKINS | Executive Director/CEO