- April 12, 2014
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Term paper writing
The purpose of this project is to provide an explanation of the ways how political factors are affecting public health.
It is a well-known fact that public health is conditioned by social factors that are dependent on social conditions, socio-economic and political development, as well as on the natural environment – the external environment. In such a way, according to Lathrop (2003), health policy can be seen as a system of goals, elements and relationships between elements. On the one side, it includes the general policy goals; while on the other side, it is a specific part of the policy, which has its own goals, such as an improvement of public health. Therefore, policy-making in health care is a complex process that involves many partners. Thus, the reform in public health inevitably involves a large number of interested parties beginning with patients (or professionals) and ending with politicians.
Providing an example of how political factors influence on public health, we can state that performance of politicians in matters related to health care means to identify the right of people to get high-quality, accessible and financially justifiable medical care. Moreover, the relationships between culture, economy and politics often determine not only what species or what levels of health services are available, but they also define what medical services people can afford because the financial condition of a person can affect one’s access to the services offered by the health care system, as well as to the activities that are related to health and affect it.
In summary, political factors are significant factors that impact on public health because public health is closely associated with many areas of social, economic and political development and are influenced by them.