In many Countries, the health sector is an important part of the economy. Some see it as a sponge-absorbing large amounts of national resources to pay for the many health workers employed. Others see it as a driver of the economy, through innovation anf investment in bio-medical technologies or production and sales of pharmaceuticals, or through ensuring a healthy population which is economically productive.
Most citizens come into contact with the health sector as patients or clients, through using hospitals, clinics or pharmacies; or as health professionals-whether as nurses, doctors, medical auxiliaries, pharmacists or managers. Because the nature of decision making in health often involves matters of life and death, health is accorded a special position in comparison to other social issues.
Health is also affected by many decisions that have nothing to do with health care : poverty affects people`s health, as do pollution, contaminated water or poor sanitation. Economic policies, such as taxes on cigarettes or alcohol may also influence people`s behaviour. Current explanations for rising obesity among many populations, for example, include the promotion of high calorie, inexpensive fast food, the sale of soft drinks at schools, as well as dwindling apportunities to take exercise.
Understanding the relationship between health policy and health is therefore important so that it is possible to tackle some of the major health problems of our time-rising obesity, the HIV / AIDS epidemic, growing drug resistance-as well as to understand how economic and other policies impact on health.
Health policy guides choices about which health technologies to develop and use, how to organize and finance health services, or what drugs will be freely available. To understand these relationships, it is necessary to better define what is meant by health policy.
Reference :
Reference :
Buse,K., Mays,N.,Walt,G.,2005, Making Health Policy, Open University Press
