HLT 605 Grand Canyon Week 2 Assignment

Public Health Reform

Submit a paper (1,250-1,500 words) focusing on public health reform. Provide an overview of the current status of public health in the United States.

Review a portion of the Affordable Care Act and present the strengths and weaknesses of the plan, as well as make suggestions for plan improvement.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Please refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.

ADDITIONAL INFO 

Public Health Reform

Introduction

A healthy population is a productive population, and the health of a country’s citizens is a measure of how much its citizens are contributing to society. The Public Health Action Plan outlines the role that governments play in creating and sustaining healthy communities. It stresses the importance of working together with other levels of government, non-government organizations, businesses and individuals to build healthier communities for all Canadians:

A new approach to public health

The new approach is based on prevention. It replaces the traditional approach to public health, which has been to treat disease once it appears. The new approach aims to prevent disease through maintaining good health habits and taking steps before a condition develops or worsens.

The old model of public health focused on treating people after they fall ill, but this has proven to be expensive and inefficient because it relies on expensive medicine that may not be effective in all cases (or even any cases). In fact, some studies have shown that up to 80% of people with heart failure do not get proper treatment from doctors because they don’t know about their symptoms until after they’ve already developed them!

Cost efficiency

• Reduce the number of people who get sick.

• Reduce the length of time people are sick.

• Reduce the number of people who die from an illness.

• Reduce how many people need to be treated for an illness or injury, so that fewer resources are used to treat them and recover from their condition (e.g., hospital beds).

The population approach

The population approach is a holistic way of thinking about public health, and it’s an important one. It focuses on the whole community as part of a system—the population as a whole—and looks at how we can improve our health together.

It’s important to think about people in their communities and across the world, because they’re affected by many aspects of public health. For example:

• You need clean air and water for everyone to be healthy; if you don’t have access to these resources then your community will suffer from poor sanitation or contaminated drinking water that could lead to disease outbreaks like cholera or Legionnaire’s disease (which killed 15 New Yorkers after Hurricane Sandy).

• If people don’t feel safe walking down streets where crime rates are high then they’re not likely going out much either; this means fewer feet on sidewalks which means less exercise which means higher risk factors for heart disease (stroke), diabetes mellitus type 2 [type 2 DM], hypertension [high blood pressure] etcetera…

Prevention first

It’s not a question of whether or not you should be doing something to prevent disease. The question is: what are you going to do?

If you’re going to spend money on prevention, then it makes sense that your best investments would be in preventing disease and protecting the public health. Prevention is better than cure because it costs less and is more sustainable over time; these factors make it more equitable (for everyone); and finally, by saving lives through early detection and response, prevention can also be seen as more humane.

The Public Health Action Plan is based on proven principles.

The Public Health Action Plan is based on the following principles:

• Prevention

• Preparedness and response

• Equity and fairness

• Transparency and accountability, including openness to public feedback. There will be opportunities for engagement throughout the development process as well as via an online survey at www.publichealthactionplan.ca/survey_form or by mail (contact information below) once we have completed our consultation with stakeholders across Canada through social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter (see section 5).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Public Health Action Plan is an exciting opportunity to transform public health. It represents a comprehensive reform that will help us better address the needs of communities around the country. The plan offers a new approach to public health, one based on proven principles such as prevention first and cost efficiency. The initial steps of implementing this plan have already begun and we look forward to working with all levels of government across Canada on this ambitious project