As the U.S. enters a Presidential election year and the larger global health and development landscape changes, U.S. global health programs face a key moment of transition. The prior decade saw unprecedented attention to and funding for global health by the U.S. government. Although funding has flattened in recent years, global health has generally enjoyed significant bipartisan support in Congress and the Administration, at a level not seen in most other non-entitlement or discretionary spending policy areas. But the future is less certain. Will bipartisan support for global health continue?  Will the next President and Congress prioritize global health?  Which issues will get the most attention, and what will happen to funding? How will a new President and Congress position the U.S. global health response within the larger global context that is now embarking upon implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, and rethinking the role of development assistance?

On Jan. 20 at 9:30 a.m. ET, the Kaiser Family Foundation held a policy briefing to discuss these questions with a panel of leading experts on foreign policy and global health. Additionally, the event featured the release of new poll findings on the American public’s views of global health, insights from interviews with opinion leaders in the field, and an analysis of global health funding in the FY 2016 omnibus bill.

Panelists included Ambassador Deborah Birx, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator; Helene Gayle, CEO of McKinsey Social Initiative; Stephen Morrison, Senior Vice President and Director, Global Health Policy Center at CSIS; and Gov. Tommy Thompson, Former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary. Jen Kates, Kaiser Family Foundation Vice President and Director of Global Health and HIV Policy, moderated the panel discussion.