Comments for Healthy Policies

Comment on Access to Contraception as a Human Right by Monika PLatek

Monika PLatek — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 06:50:31 +0000

It is such a genius and simple idea, and as many are for some reason so difficult to come with and grasp until someone is not stating it. This time is Maria Pawlowska. If we agree that reproductive health is part of human rights that consequently this right can not hang in the air without proper tools to it enforcement. What Maria is writing is revealing and providing arguments for all those in Polish pharmacies where those selling refuse to sell contraceptive namely base on their Christian conciousness (sic!)

Comment on The Price of Democracy in Illegal Abortions by Poland: How the New Government is Less Homophobic But More Anti-Choice « European Pro-Choice Network

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:07:26 +0000

[...] political will to make things worse (I wrote more about the anti-abortion laws and their history here). Over the past 20 years the political allegiance of those in power didn’t seem to matter much, [...]

Comment on Access to Contraception as a Human Right by Courtney McNamara

Courtney McNamara — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:55:18 +0000

I’ll work on it!

Comment on Access to Contraception as a Human Right by terriaminute

terriaminute — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:52:40 +0000

Can we get a GooglePlus share button, please? It really does encourage spreading the word farther afield, not having to hop back and forth to post link & comment!

Comment on Social Determinants of Health: Life after Rio by International Health Policies » IHP News #144 – Social determinants of Health in India

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:42:17 +0000

[...] week’s guest editor and Emerging Voice Omesh Kumar Bharti gives an Indian perspective on the Rio summit on social determinants of health. [...]

Comment on Reforms to the NHS in England: a brief introduction by Questions on Personal Health Budgets « Health and Policy

Questions on Personal Health Budgets « Health and Policy — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 01:41:56 +0000

[...] in England, ‘the NHS’ has meant the local Primary Care Trust, although these structures are now in flux. Lansley’s Conference announcement clarified that the initial target group for personal health [...]

Comment on From the Social to the Ultimate Determinants of Health by amar

amar — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:58:41 +0000

Health is an ot come of the Economic condition of the Society / Nationa. The national Health policy & expenditure pattern were to bereviewed. For an example, the Govt. of India’s Health policy; The Indian senario of health the social determinants are reflected in the High IMR , MMr & destitution, sickness, and premature deaths of the new borns.

Comment on Occupy Healthcare but don’t forget about the Social Determinants of Health by Natalie

Natalie — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 03:06:55 +0000

Good ways to start the discussion:
- Massive and repeated viewings of “Unnatural Causes – is Inequality Making us Sick?” Most public health schools have a copy. Recruit the Harvard SPH profs who are featured in it to do a teach-in! I think one of the episodes – focused on job support, etc. – is still free streaming online
- Watch the TED talk and/or review other data from http://www.equalitytrust.co.uk

Comment on Social Determinants of Health: Life after Rio by Dichiarazione politica di Rio sui determinanti sociali della salute

Dichiarazione politica di Rio sui determinanti sociali della salute — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 17:27:17 +0000

[...] Post di Ted Schreker su Healthy Policies [...]

Comment on Better Governance to Improve Health by Vinu Ilakkuvan

Vinu Ilakkuvan — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 03:08:55 +0000

Couldn’t agree more that governance is key to prevention (and I talked about a lot of needed changes in governance/policy in a recent post – http://pursuitofpublichealth.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/beyond-healthcare-occupying-for-health/), but as someone recently pointed out on my blog, whereas there are profits to be had in medical treatments and devices, this is often not the case with good governance that leads to better prevention (of course, there are profits, but these governance/policy changes benefit everyone, not a particular special interest group).

So, what strategies can we use to convince governments to shift priorities, particularly in the face of frighteningly powerful lobbying groups/special interests?

As a side note about the economics of public health, I think this article by David Hemenway in the New England Journal of Medicine does a great job capturing the problem [http://healthpolicyandreform.nejm.org/?p=3400&query=home].

In it, he highlights four key reasons for underfunding:

Because public health prevents, benefits lie in the future, and people prefer immediate gratification.

Because public health addresses populations, beneficiaries are unknown – public health deals with statistical lives, not identifiable people – and people have stronger emotional and moral reactions to identifiable victims than statistical ones.

Benefactors in public health are often unknown as well – public health has little news value (“saving statistical lives doesn’t make for good human-interest stories or photo ops”).

Public health initiatives often require societal change – and that’s hard.