EVOLUTION OF HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT

The Emergence of Public Health

The early periods of the seventeenth and eighteenth-century witnessed the emergence of various
epidemics and diseases. There was a great effort from the public to protect the citizens from
contagious diseases at this stage. The 19th century saw a great advancement in the field of public
health. There was a huge development in the role of the public in financing public health care during
the late 1970s. During the same period, the public sector share of this sum rose from 25 percent to
37 percent. Although health needs and health services have not diminished, political and social
values of this time encouraged fiscal constraint. The values during this period emphasized state
responsibility for most health and welfare programs.

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The 20th century saw the expansion of the Government's role in public health. During this period,
several federal activities in promoting individual health care and running programs for health
campaigns came up. The expansion of state activities in health paralleled the growth in federal
activities. Many of the changes on the federal level stimulated or supported state programs. In 2000
the World Health Organization (WHO) performed a ranking to compare the performance of
the health systems of the member countries. Since then other health system rankings have
been performed and it became an issue of public discussion. By the beginning of the 21st century,
every individual's access to health care has come to be regarded as a basic human right.

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Source: hcinnovationgroup.com

The history of the public health system is a history of bringing knowledge and values together in the
public arena to shape an approach to health problems. The public health agency's task has been
to define objectives for the healthcare system based on facts about illness and health and
find means to implement health goals within a social structure.

Healthcare Services Around the World

All health systems are different due to the different combinations of components they can consider.

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USA:

Most Americans are served by a mix of publicly and privately funded programs and healthcare
systems. Overall, the US healthcare system allows providers to inflate prices and expensive
services but poorly compensates for essential services such as primary care and
behavioral advice.

UK:

The UK healthcare system covers the whole population via the National Health System (NHS). The UK
has public, private profit, and nonprofit hospitals.

European Union:

Each country in the EU has its healthcare system. However, EU members generally share the same
goal as the UK model. All healthcare systems in Europe automatically include all citizens irrespective
of paying capacity. Secondly, all are mostly funded by taxes paid by the employer and by the public.
Healthcare is free, except for some elective and specialist services.

Asia:

Asian healthcare systems are a mélange of public and privately managed programs.

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Australia:

Australia has a tax-funded universal free public health insurance program, called Medicare. All citizens
get free care from the public and many physician services and drugs at public hospitals.

Africa:

Most Africans that are either low or middle-income turn to the public health system or traditional
healers. Only a few can afford high-quality private care, but out-of-pocket expenditures are
bound to be high in this two-tier system.

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