Assignment Details: For the next newsletter, you have been asked to provide information about the role of government in public health.
Choose a health issue prevalent in your community.
Research national, state, and local government health agency websites for information on your chosen health issue.
Write a 700- to 1,050-word summary of your findings. Your summary should:
Analyze the structure and function of public health at national, state, and local levels. In your analysis, include:
What type of structure you see between levels of government
What functions you see at each level of government
How the levels of government work together
Use specific examples from your research to validate your points.
Include at least 3 references.
Format your assignment according to APA guidelines.
TO BE RE-WRITTEN FROM THE SCRATCH
The role of government in public health
Public health structure and function that incorporates the three levels of government – national, state and local – is not only important for it to be able to respond to such crisis as pandemics, but also to be able to address other ongoing issues such as public safety, chronic illnesses and health promotion. In the United States, there is no comprehensive national health policy that defines the structure and functions of the federal, state and county governments. Nonetheless, guided by precedence and the constitution, the three government levels together ensure that the public are healthy; with the federal government having the prerequisites to assure public health such as expertise and resources whilst the state and local governments offer the function including services and logistics (DeSalvo, 2017). For example, in California, the federal government is charged with supplying reimbursements to suppliers of medical equipment for asthma patients, one of the major health issues afflicting this community that lives in a hot, humid and dusty environment where wild fires are prevalent. Yet the state offers tenders for supply of the medical equipment whilst the hospitals under the jurisdiction of the local governments provide the diagnosis and therapy including home visits to asthma patients (Boyd-Barrett, 2020).
The constitution provides for a federal government that divides power among the legislature, executive, and judiciary; with the state governments adapting similar schemes. With regard to health, the legislature enacts health policy and allocates the required resources. Health departments and agencies within the executive implement the legislation and enforce the policy through appropriate regulations. The judiciary resolves any legal disputes by interpreting the health laws as enacted by the legislature (DeSalvo, 2017). The judiciary arm at the state and federal levels has especially been influential in defining the powers of the government in health matters. Hence the various arms of the government at the various levels provide checks and balances, offering oversight and control of the other arms. For example to determine what quotas of ventilator and ventilator circuits to be allocated to asthmatic children in California versus quotas for Covid-19 requires consensus among the Californian legislature, executive and judiciary (Boyd-Barrett, 2020).
Hence, the federal government is involved in public health in the areas of “policy making, financing, public health protection, collecting and disseminating information about U.S. health and health care delivery systems, capacity building for population health, and direct management of services” (Institute of Medicine, 2003). This is evident through the work of the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a component of the Department of Health and Human Services, that has established such agencies and units as the Public Health Practice Program Office, Centers for Prevention Research…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Role of government in public health
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