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A 1973 cover of Time magazine featured a picture of Gov. Wendell Anderson with the caption "The Good Life In Minnesota." When asked about the article four decades later, Anderson responded, "Two things stand out about what we did back then. We had a social conscience that led us to invest in the common good; things that benefit everyone. And we were civil, and we cooperated. We didn't always agree, but we cooperated and compromised. That's an approach I wish was embraced today."

Anderson's words reflect a public health approach to governing that has been a hallmark of Minnesota's history — working collectively to assure the conditions in which everyone can thrive.

As state commissioners of health in the administrations of Democratic, Republican and Independence Party governors over the last three decades, we embraced those principles and worked diligently with many partners in the public, private and nonprofit sectors to create and sustain Minnesota's status as one of the healthiest states in the country. Our efforts taught us the importance of strong and clear federal, state and local governmental partnerships in addressing the myriad public health challenges facing our state. We worked with Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress, the Minnesota Legislature, and county and city governments. The prevention and community focus of public health across partisan lines is truly a win-win approach, saving money as well as lives.

Unfortunately, the federal component of the decadeslong collective and collaborative approach necessary to protect the health of the public is now being systematically and rapidly destroyed by an anti-public-health agenda — an agenda that runs counter to everything we all worked to build and that helped create the "good life" in Minnesota. Federal programs and resources that we took for granted addressing infectious diseases, air quality, clean water, worker safety, environmental contamination, chronic diseases, substance use, maternal and infant health, community and personal violence, birth defects and many others are already gone. And that list is growing. Losing these programs is particularly incomprehensible when our life expectancy and infant death rates are the worst among high-income nations and when we are amid a measles outbreak.

Public health systems can and must always strive to be more equitable, efficient and effective, but that should be done with intentionality and precision, not a chainsaw. Many cuts are already having negative effects internationally, nationally and locally. Minnesota has not been spared. Funding reductions threaten to decimate our already understaffed public health workforce and will make it impossible to modernize our systems. Ceasing to collect and share data will prevent us from identifying emerging threats or evaluating the effectiveness of interventions. This bodes ill for today's residents and for future generations.

We are all proud to have led one of the finest state public health departments in the nation. But once these essential systems and services are weakened or gone, they will be difficult to restore. Without a robust public health system, how will we be able to maintain the effective collaboration with businesses, religious organizations and governmental policy makers that made Minnesota so healthy? How will we enhance the rich social capital that makes our state so strong? Government cannot solve all our problems, but governmental public health has a fundamental and essential role to play in protecting the health of the public.

We collectively call upon our congressional delegation, both Democrats and Republicans, to step up and advocate for the needs of the people they represent and save essential public health services. They swore an oath to the Constitution that includes their role and responsibility to "promote the common welfare," which includes the health of the public. All Minnesotans should hold them accountable to that oath. We also exhort our state and local elected officials to act to protect and strengthen core public health infrastructure and programs and resist and counteract significant threats at the state and federal levels. This will require bipartisan collaboration that puts a commitment to the common good ahead of political expediency.

The author of the 1973 Time magazine article said that Minnesota's crowning achievements were due to "civility and fairness, courtesy, honesty, a capacity for innovation, hard work, intellectual adventure and responsibility, and people's extraordinary civic interest and the business community's social conscience." All of us, particularly our legislators and policymakers, must go back to our roots and work collectively to assure the conditions in which everyone can be healthy so that 52 years from now our grandchildren will also be experiencing the good life in Minnesota.

The authors are former Minnesota health commissioners. Anne Barry served under Gov. Arne Carlson; Ed Ehlinger, under Gov. Mark Dayton; Sanne Magnan, under Gov. Tim Pawlenty; Jan Malcolm under Govs. Jesse Ventura and Tim Walz, in addition to Dayton, and Dianne Mandernach also under Pawlenty.