I prefer not to speculate about the motivations of policy makers, because I can't read minds. However, it's clear, judging by the rate of avoidable ills like opiate overdoses and type 2 diabetes, to name just a couple, that our government policy can't be called broadly successful for many of today's major public health issues.

That's not to say it's a total failure. The sanitation improvements of the mid 20th century had a huge positive effect on public health. Indoor plumbing wasn't even available in wide swaths of the USA back then.