Health and Human Services

Few can imagine the vast impact the human services profession has on American society. Perhaps the best lens through which to view the work of human service professionals is to focus on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This gargantuan agency (HHS) will manage a budget of $130.7 billion in discretionary and $1.7 trillion in mandatory expenditures for FY 2025.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

This budget illustrates HHS’s commitment to support American families, improve behavioral health, and ensure the nation’s readiness for the next public health crisis. An army of dedicated case workers toil to ensure all Americans have access to affordable healthcare; improve maternal and reproductive health outcomes; strengthen early care and education; address the needs of Indian Country; and advance scientific innovation.

HHS is divided into areas of responsibility across a wide range of human need.

1. Administration for Community Living (ACL)
2. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
3. Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)
4. Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR)
5. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
7. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
8. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
9. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
10. Indian Health Service (IHS)
11. National Institutes of Health (NIH)
12. Substance Use and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

Administration for Community Living

Let's look at the first department that focuses on human services. The budget for this one department is divided into the areas of need below:

The pie chart above offers a bird's eye view of how the ACF portion of the HHS budget is invested in human services. The money is spent on behalf of the needy in each category by case workers who work directly for the agency as well as case workers who toil in private agencies that are supported by the grants included in the budget.

Toiling Out of Sight

By looking from afar at the whole of the Health and Human Services Department we hope to give our readers some sense of the vastness of the human services that are funded by taxpayers on behalf of the needy and marginalized in our country. Case workers toiling out of sight in office buildings across the nation are the unsung American heroes, and the American public is far more empathetic and generous than our image as heartless, greedy capitalists portray us. No other country on earth has ever spent as much capital or effort to offer a leg up to the unfortunate and needy.

A Healthy Self-Image

The competitive capitalism that America has so proudly nurtured since our founding has unfortunately branded Americans as heartless money grubbers. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, as a nation, we work hard to get ahead, but we have never left those who cannot keep pace sink into destitution. The beauty of the American dream has always been that we are all in this together. That is the magic of America. We are competitive but never heartless. Just look at all the intelligent, highly educated case workers who could easily work for a lot more money in any other field but nonetheless devote their entire careers to helping others for little monetary reward and less recognition.

When we step back and take a long look at the vast sums of money and the army of case workers that the Department of Health and Human Services devotes to the care of our marginalized population, we realize why this is the greatest country in the world. Let's never forget it!