Submitted by: Submitted by MannaGurl18
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Category: Business and Industry
Date Submitted: 02/24/2016 04:13 PM
Public health refers to all organized measures (whether public or private) to prevent disease, promote health, and prolong life among the population as a whole. Its activities aim to provide conditions in which people can be healthy and focus on entire populations, not on individual patients or diseases. Thus, public health is concerned with the total system and not only the eradication of a particular disease. (Public Health, 2014) Public health professionals monitor and diagnose the health concerns of entire communities and promote healthy practices and behaviors to ensure that populations stay healthy. (Public Health, 2014)
Public health programs are financed through a combination of federal, state, and local governmental appropriations and, especially at the local level, from fees and other reimbursements received directly for services provided. In this financing structure, each level of government has different, but important responsibilities for protecting the public’s health. Despite the relatively small role that medical care plays in population health, the health resources of the U.S. are disproportionally allocated to the provision of care as opposed to the promotion of health. Nationally, only about 3percent of the total funds spent on healthcare are allocated to public health. (Gapenski)
In partnerships with states and localities, the federal government has the following public health responsibilities. Assure the capacity for all levels of government to provide essential public health services, Act when health threats may span many states, regions, or the whole country, Act where the solution may be beyond the jurisdiction of individual states. Act to assist the states when they do not have the expertise or resources to mount an effective response in a public health emergency such as a natural disaster, bioterrorism, or an emerging disease, Facilitate the formulation of public health goals in collaboration with state and local governments and other...