It is a set of elements and their relationship in a complex whole, designed to serve the health needs of the population. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines a health system as: “The people, institutions and resources, arranged together in accordance with established policies, to improve the health of the population they serve, while responding to people’s legitimate expectations and protecting them against the cost of ill-health through a variety of activities whose primary intent is to improve health. This interrelates with human resources for health (Chapter 14), financing and economics (Chapter 11), organization (Chapter 10), technology, law, and ethics (Chapter 15), and global health (Chapter 16). Other key aspects include social, sanitary, environmental, legal, economic, and educational factors. Some of those interventions are provided by medical care and its preventive aspects. In order to promote optimal health, effective population-level prevention methods as described in previous chapters, availability of and access to care must be seen in the context of the individual and of societal conditions that increase the risk of disease, and application of appropriate measures to reduce those risks to prevent disease and promote health. Despite its value, medical care by itself is not sufficient to produce a high standard of population health. There are many personal or community risk factors which affect health status, and medical care is a vital aspect of the broad spectrum of health needs. Aging populations, increasing costs, advancing and increasing technology all require nations to modify and adapt organization and financing systems of health care, health protection and promotion.Īssuring access to quality health care for all is a basic principle of the New Public Health. Health reform is a continuing process as all countries aspire to assure health care for all. Various universal systems of health coverage exist in all industrialized countries, except in the United States which has a mix of public and private insurance but with high percentages of uninsured and poorly insured. The common features are based on principles of national responsibility and solidarity for health, social solidarity for providing funding and searching for effective ways of providing care. Some models, such as the Bismarckian social security model and the Bereidge National Health Service model, or National Health insurance such as in pioneered in Canada, are used by a number of countries. National health insurance and national health services of various models have evolved in the developed world and increasingly in developing countries as well. Health care systems ideally include universal access to comprehensive prepaid medical care along with health promotion and disease prevention.
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