Health care involves the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease or injury through medical professionals such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, midwives, optometrists physicians associates and other health professionals.
Health services provided include primary, secondary, tertiary and public healthcare. Insurance helps cover costs associated with these services.
Public/Private
Public health care in the US is funded with tax dollars and provided through government programs like Medicare and Medicaid, providing free or low-cost health coverage to seniors and people with disabilities, while private healthcare plans can be purchased by consumers who pay premiums and out-of-pocket expenses for access.
Private healthcare is a lucrative industry that is dominated by hospitals, insurance providers and other health providers; furthermore it is tightly regulated both state and federally.
Private health insurance offers those seeking more control and access to better healthcare a great opportunity. It may be less costly than public coverage and offers greater variety for meeting personal preferences and budget constraints.
Single-Payer
Single-payer health care systems refers to national or state-level plans funded and administered by their government and overseen by one public agency, like those found in Canada, Sweden and the UK.
These plans involve the government collecting taxes and revenue in order to fund a single plan, while also defining an eligible population, selecting services covered, and allocating sufficient funding for providers of those services.
The government also maintains cost control by setting fee-for-service or global budgets and including various providers such as hospitals, doctors/specialists/nurses homes/pharmacies in its system.
A single-payer system is a proposal to overhaul our healthcare system, with an aim to enhance access, quality and cost containment.
Public-Private Partnership
Public-private partnerships (PPPs) in health care offer an innovative solution for providing services and facilities while mitigating financial risk, becoming increasingly popular globally as a source of financing health care projects.
PPPs not only save costs and decrease medical errors; they may also help improve patient safety by shifting responsibility and costs to someone who might better handle them. But to realize these advantages, the partnership must be structured properly so as to take full advantage of private sector capabilities and expertise.
This analysis details the development of public-private partnerships over the past 20 years and details a research protocol commissioned by the World Health Organization to measure their efficacy. Furthermore, it highlights potential challenges and barriers related to implementation of PPP plans for health care delivery systems.
Community-Based
Community-based health care is a model that emphasizes overall wellness rather than treating specific illnesses. It offers comprehensive medical, mental health, substance abuse, pharmacy services as well as supportive services such as counseling, transportation to appointments and bilingual staff – providing people with all they need for good health.
These health care programs aim to decrease medical costs through preventive care and by helping patients monitor chronic conditions. Furthermore, these initiatives strive to address health disparities by serving communities whose residents have historically encountered financial, geographic, language or cultural barriers that prevented them from receiving adequate healthcare.
Community public health workers need to learn about a community’s specific traits such as its health issues, ethnic and racial makeup and socioeconomic status before developing an intervention plan that addresses its most urgent health needs. They also work towards encouraging health-enhancing behaviors while increasing access to essential resources like affordable medical, dental and mental healthcare services. To reach this goal successfully, public health workers must develop an in-depth knowledge of local communities’ particularities – health issues, ethnic and racial makeup and socioeconomic standing are just some of the variables they must assess; surveys and focus groups can help identify such characteristics, while conducting surveys and focus groups can help determine what those needs might be; once identified this allows programs like this to effectively develop intervention plans to effectively meet them.
