If public health is really so successful, why are people still getting sick and

Question

If public health is really so successful, why are people still getting sick and engaging in behaviors that are bad for their health?

What do you think are the most important problems for public health to address today?

Why do we need so many types of health departments at the federal, state, and local levels? Does public health help create too much of a government bureaucracy? Why or why not? Does it matter?

Is it more important for the government to invest in curative medical care or in prevention efforts? What are the benefits and drawbacks of each?

Would you volunteer for the Medical Reserve Corps in your community? Why? Why not?

please answer alll questions thanks again

Explanation / Answer

Hi - We can answer only first four parts as a policy, so please post the remaining questions in a separate post to help us answer them. Thanks!

1.If public health is really so successful, why are people still getting sick and engaging in behaviors that are bad for their health?

Public health programs have largely been successful in eradicating deadly diseases and epidemics like polio, smallpox, etc. which used to create havoc in the past. Due to regular vaccination schemes, many diseases are prevented in the normal course of life.

However, people are still falling sick because of new problems such as virus spread from other geographies or the entry of new diseases which were unknown till now. Bad behaviors such as smoking and drinking alcohol also play an important factor in making people sick. Lack of healthy lifestyle, sedentary work culture, and fast food consumption is really adding to make people sick. The government needs to launch awareness programs so that people care about their health more seriously.

The most important problems to address today are as follows:

We need so many health departments so that there are a wide coverage and special attention to all sorts of healthcare issues.

Also, the local needs are much different than the healthcare policies at the central or country level. There needs to be a specific local intervention for local needs and common diseases in that particular region.

Yes, I agree that public health system creates too much of a government bureaucracy. There are many departments and insurance and financial companies which are involved in public health care. This creates a complex web of processes and dependency that makes a life of normal citizen difficult. So rationalization of processes is required to make the public health system smarter and simpler. It does matter as to affects the life of all the citizens and a wide mass of population cannot afford private healthcare, so they are totally dependent on the public healthcare systems.

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