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Abstract: One of the great challenges in public health policy is ensuring that state and local agencies possess the legal authority necessary for health promotion and disease prevention efforts. Laws in many jurisdictions reflect dated health problems and anachronistic responses, lack functionality and coherence, and contradict modern constitutional or scientific norms. Many public and private-sector policy makers, scholars, and public health officials have long argued that state public health laws throughout the country are ripe for reform. This call for reform was answered in the Turning Point Model State Public Health Act (Turning Point Act), a template developed to spur state public health law modernization. In this article, we explore the lessons learned from the Turning Point Act—comparing the subsequent public health law modernization efforts of two states, South Carolina and Alaska—to inform future state reform initiatives.
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