What is the role of the United States government in regards to the delivery, access, and provision of health care services?
Discussion Question
The federal government has a critical role in shaping all components of the health care sector. Robust federal leadership with a clear direction to attain common goals, and effective and consistent policies and practice through government health care functions and programs are essential in raising the degree of quality for communities and patients who benefit from them. The implication is that government, right from local to federal, has a critical role in driving improvement in the health care sector. The U.S. government must develop policies and practices that enhance delivery, access, and provision of health care services (Barai-Jaitly & Ghosh, 2018). The government has a role to expand access to health care through policies legislations like the Affordable Care Act 2010. The government has a responsibility to expand access to quality primary health care and reduce the cost of care. Public health promotes the welfare of the whole population, ensures security and protects it from spread of infectious and emerging infectious disease and environmental hazards (Taylor et al., 2020). Public health assists in ensuring access to safe and quality care to benefit the population.
Government responsibilities for public health transcends voluntary activities and services and entail formulation of
laws like immunization and regulatory frameworks for all professionals and practitioners. To this end, health care is a right and not a privilege for all Americans. Government must ensure that all people irrespective of the socioeconomic statuses must have access to health care services, especially primary or preventive care (Marquez & Ladd, 2019). The right to health implies that governments must offer information, facilities, and interventions that promote good and safe health for all people. The government at all levels must ensure that the right to health care is protected through effective resource allocation.
References
Barai-Jaitly, T., & Ghosh, S. (2018). Role of government in funded health insurance schemes.
Economic and Political Weekly, 53(25), 7-8.
Marquez, L. L., & Ladd, D. L. (2019). Promoting health literacy: finding consumer health
resources and writing health materials for patients. Journal of Hospital Librarianship, 19(2), 156-164.
Taylor, J., O’Hara, L., Talbot, L., & Verrinder, G. (2020). Promoting health: the primary health
care approach. Elsevier.