Economic Issues Relevant to Health Care Policy
Economic Issues Relevant to Health Care Policy
Introduction
Public health and development problems have become issues of great concern for the past few years. Public health in different regions in the world has reached the crisis level. More than 40 million in the world die from infectious disease each year. 90% of the deaths are recorded in developing countries. In addition, more than 40 million people suffer from HIV/ AIDs.90% of the HIV/AIDs cases are found in developing nations. HIV/AIDs kill more than 3 million people each year (Mercurio, 2007).
Additionally, the prevalence of malaria and tuberculosis has increased. More than 500 people die of malaria every year. 2 million people in the world die from malaria (Mercurio, 2007). Also, more than 8 million people suffer from TB and 2 million die from TB. 99% of the malaria deaths are from developing countries. A large number of people die annually from other diseases in developing countries (Mercurio, 2007). Most of the diseases in these countries are preventable especially infectious diseases, but the governments have not managed to prevent them. This has increased the number of deaths resulting from these diseases. The governments have not managed to prevent the diseases due to lack of resources and medicines. The world health organization claims that more than 1.7 billion people have insufficient medicine or do not have access to important medicines (Mercurio, 2007).
Studies have shown that diagnosing and treatment of diseases in Africa and Southeast Asia could save almost 4 million lives annually. Economic factors affect the provision of care in the world especially developed countries. The rate of diseases in developed countries has increased due to lack of care and access to care. Economic in health care deals with various things including resourcing. In addition, it deals with equity, efficiency and markets. Economic issues affect development and implementation of health care policies in developing countries. They also affect drug research and development (Mercurio, 2007).
Discussion
All people are supposed to have the physical needs of their bodies fulfilled at the heart of the human right movement. They have a right to survive and live free from reasonable suffering that can be prevented. The declaration of human rights articulates this human right to sufficient health as evidenced in article 25. According to article 25, every person has a right to living standards sufficient for his health and wellbeing and his family. Every person is entitled to basic needs such as food, housing, clothing and medical care. All countries are supposed to take action to prevent suffering and ensure their citizens enjoy sufficient standards of living. The countries should provide food, clothing, health care, social services and housing.
However, describing standards that value the components is hard as different countries have different economic and social history and capacities. Thus, the countries understand the standards of living differently. However, resolving the issue of the highest attainable standard is hard as it is not clear whether the issue should be evaluated based on the economic infrastructure of a single country or global community (University of Minnesota human rights center, 2003).
Lack of adequate financial resources has affected health care in developing countries and resulted to deaths. Financial barriers have led to health care inequality in the world (Mercurio, 2007). Developed nations are able to finance health and ensure the citizens live free from diseases and suffering. On the other hand, developing nations do not have the ability to finance health care and this has affected health care and citizen lives (Mercurio, 2007). Ctizens suffer from a wide range of infections including malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDs etc.
Lack of finances has hindered developing nations from acquiring drugs needed to treat infections and prevent diseases. Thus, citizens die from preventable diseases. Also, the countries do not have funds to finance drug development programs and disease prevention programs (Canning & Bloom, 2008). The suffering in developing nations cannot be alleviated without committed from all countries to fund health improvement. Developing nations historically do not have the resources required to finance health care improvement programs. Also, they do not have the will to fund the programs (World Health Organization, 2002).
Financial assistance from developed nations is crucial in funding health improvement programs and enhancing health care. Developed countries should take on responsibility of funding medical infrastructure in developing countries. Governments can raise revenue from tax instruments to fund the programs. They can change financing from other domestic areas to finance global projects. However, governments in developed nations are not able to raise revenue from taxes dye to resistance from citizens. Also, they are unable to shift money from some domestic areas to fund health care in developing nations due to resistance from citizens. This has resulted to inadequate health infrastructure in developing countries.
Moreover, developing nations do not show commitment to eradication of tuberculosis, malaria and AIDs. Developing countries contribute to fighting of the diseases by funding medical programs like Global Fund to fight AIDs, malaria and TB. Thus, the international community should increase its aid to developing countries. The health care and economic conditions in developing countries will improve if developed countries provide an amount equal to 0.7 percent of the GNI on ODA (Mercurio, 2007). Effective monitoring is vital to ensure countries use the aid as intended. The current system should be changed to prevent organizations and groups from competing with one another and duplicating research and technical efforts (Eide, Alfredsson, Melander, Rehof, Rosas, 1992).
In addition to that, lack of prioritization in developing countries has affected efforts to improve health care. Lack of political will in such countries and capacity to provide proper health care solution has made it hard to lessen the health care crisis. Thus, governments in developed countries should allocate their scarce resources to satisfying the health care needs of the population (Mercurio, 2007). The low budgeting for public health and expenditure has led to limited storage facilities, personnel and equipment. Most of the developing nations lack economic foundation to maintain a properly functioning public health environment. The countries are unable to purchase drugs, store, transport and d administer the drugs.
The storage, transportation and administering of drugs purchased costs more than the cost of purchasing. The poor health care infrastructure in health care is evidenced by lack of sufficient health care facilities, personal, hospital beds etc. Additionally, improper management of resources and aid has affected health care in developing nations (Laaser & Epstein, 2010).
Lastly, lack of sufficient research and development of drugs and vaccines has made it difficult to prevent diseases in developing nations. Patents do not offer enough research incentives where the market for products is inadequate (Mercurio, 2007). Though the pharmaceutical industry has made an effort in producing drugs and vaccines, they are not effective in third world countries due to disease resistance. The current incentive structure to enhance research and development of drugs in developed nations is deficient. Therefore, to promote research related to third world nations, health care priorities should be reoriented and incentives given for the pharmaceutical industry. The creation of public and private partnership has offered an innovate way to fund creative solution and promote innovation (Laaser U., & Epstein, 2010).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the prevalence of preventable diseases and deaths in developing countries will increase if the international community does not intervene. The international community should increase aid provided to developing nations to 0.7 of GNI to enable them finance health care. Also, the developing nations should give priority to health care to improve citizens’ health. Lack of resources including finances has affected health care in the countries. In addition, lack of development of medicine and research to prevent diseases in developing nations will increase the diseases.
Reference
World Health Organization. (2002) .The World Health Report: Reducing Risks, Promoting Healthy Life.
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