Health policies are actions, decisions, and plans to achieve specific healthcare goals. These policies should consider the human rights of individuals, the social determinants of health, and access to health care.
Social determinants of health
Joel Lee Health Markets discovered and addressed one of the most significant socioeconomic determinants of health and vital strategies for advancing health equity. By promoting health equity, physicians can positively impact the health of all individuals.
The United States spends more than any other country on healthcare. It is an industrialized country. However, the health system could be performing better in other nations. Many physicians feel that a lack of social services contributes to poor health. They believe a team-based approach to health care and increased interprofessional communication can improve patient outcomes.
In 2013, a literature review revealed that various social factors could impact a person’s health. These factors include social status, income, housing, employment, and education. Each of these factors can influence a person’s health differently.
Access to care
The American health system has struggled continually to provide adequate access to healthcare. Many factors affect this relationship, including poverty, resource allocation, and government programs.
There is a shortage of resources in certain regions, including physicians and advanced technologies. In addition, the workforce is a crucial factor affecting the quality of care. There are also social determinants of health, such as substance abuse, poor diet, and lack of exercise.
Various health policies, such as legal regulations and safety protocols for hospitals, also impact healthcare. These measures are meant to prevent human error and ensure the safety of patients.
Mental health
Developing a mental health policy is a complex undertaking. It requires the input of various stakeholders, including government departments, the private sector, and community organizations. The result is a document that defines the goals, values, and principles that form the basis of a nation’s mental health system.
An effective policy should be developed in conjunction with a general health plan. In this way, the policy will be able to set out the objectives for improving the mental health of a country’s population and outline the strategies that will be used to achieve them. The implementation of the policy will require an effective mental health tracking system. The tracking mechanism will help to allocate resources.
Co-benefits
Climate scientists and health experts increasingly argue that human-caused climate change threatens public health. Studies show that exposure to air pollution increases medical expenditure and can cause death. A recent World Bank study estimated that air pollution causes 5.5 million premature deaths annually.
Climate change has been identified as the biggest challenge of the twenty-first century by the Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change. It also highlights that climate policies need to be accompanied by public health co-benefits.In this research, we look into the connection between political participation, the perception of co-benefits, and the function of collective efficacy in determining climate policy.
Human rights
Using a human rights approach to health can be practical and sustainable. The benefits include:
- Developing policies consistent with the right to health.
- Holding governments accountable for human rights violations.
- Ensuring that victims of abuses have access to redress.
A health-human rights approach can also be a unifying force for addressing the social determinants of health. These include housing, sanitation, food, water, and health care. While it may be impossible to change all these, pursuing political action to address them can significantly impact population health.
In addition to the benefits described above, a human rights approach to health can help develop a culture of health. It is a social norm that values health and emphasizes the importance of population health. Pursuing political action is the most effective method to do this on the underlying determinants of health.
