PHA-Exchange> GEN: What is a National Health Policy?

[Claudio]

From: Ruggiero, Mrs. Ana Lucia (WDC) 
 EQUIDAD at LISTSERV.PAHO.ORG 

WHAT IS A NATIONAL HEALTH POLICY?

 

Vicente Navarro, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins University

International Journal of Health Services  - Volume 37, Number 1 / 2007  

 

Full text PDF [14p.] available online at: 

http://baywood.metapress.com/media/3lpmnmmylnfm61nvtw3p/contributions/h/4/5/4/h454732660341t25.pdf 

 

Abstract: http://tinyurl.com/22qbye 

 

"...Unfortunately, most nation states have taken "health policy" to mean "medical care policy." Medical care, however, is only one variable in a 

nation's health equation. The article describes what the main components of a national health policy should be, including 

1)the political, economic, social, and cultural determinants of health, the most important determinants of health in any country; 
2) the lifestyle determinants, which have been the most visible types of public interventions; and 
3) the socializing and empowering determinants, which link the first and second components of a national health policy: the individual interventions and the collective interventions. 

The author discusses the indicators that should be used for each component and for each intervention. The feasibility of this approach depends to a large degree on the political will of the national authorities and the broad understanding of the actual determinants of health. A good first step is the National Health Policy plan developed by the Swedish social democratic government. This article builds on and expands on that model..."

 

Direct reprint requests to:

Dr. Vicente Navarro, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins University

624 North Broadway, Room 448 Baltimore, MD 21205 USA

e-mail: vnavarro at jhsph.edu  

 


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