Combating COVID-19 in Democratic Taiwan and South Korea

2020 ◽  
Vol 119 (818) ◽  
pp. 210-216
Author(s):  
Joseph Wong

South Korea and Taiwan effectively suppressed the coronavirus without the authoritarian measures imposed in China or the lockdowns used elsewhere. They responded quickly, communicated clearly and consistently about the threat. Both governments had prior experiences with contagions to prepare for an epidemic. And both states had introduced universal health care during their periods of democratization, shaping a consensus among citizens about equity, solidarity, and the role of government in protecting public health. Their strategies provide replicable and repeatable models.

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-253
Author(s):  
Nandini Jayakumar

Sanjeev Kelkar, India’s Public Health Care Delivery, Policies for Universal Health Care. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, xix + 496 pp., Ä 93.08. ISBN: 9789813341791 (Hardback).


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Jarman

Abstract Background The United States is effectively a laboratory for ways to produce public goods, such as public health, on the cheap. Its c. 90,000 governments compete for residents, businesses, taxes, development, and jobs while also trying to compensate for the lack of universal health care coverage. They all have structural incentives to provide services as cheaply as possible. The effects are diverse and poorly mapped. They can mean innovation in organizational forms, a different and typically less expensive skill mix among the workers, poor quality, or simple under provision. The exact mix can often be hard to identify. It can also mean extreme responsiveness to funding from higher levels of government such as the states or federal government. Methods A comparative historical analysis (CHA) based on government documents, law, and secondary sources. Results The distinctively expansive scope of US public health actions is largely due to the country’s failure to establish a universal health care system, and the diversity of US public health tasks reflects local adaptation of tens of thousands of governments. This means that public health in the United States retains much of the activity it had in, for example, the UK before the establishment of the US. In particular, and even in states that accepted the Medicaid expansion in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), local public health departments provide a substantial amount of direct care and fill in for gaps in health care provision. Conclusions The US public health system is highly fragmented like the governments that run it, and therefore diverse. Reflecting the failures of the US health care system, it carries out many more tasks that in other countries are seen as health, especially primary, care.


Challenges ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn Laverack

The aim of this paper is to discuss the relevance of tailored interventions to ensure that vulnerable groups, such as migrants, are covered by public health programs. Most migrants do not have access to universal health care, including preventive and protective services. Tailored interventions can play an important role in helping to promote better migrant health through improved access to health care, increased awareness, better community-based structures and positive behaviour changes. The paper identifies some of the most effective strategies for the application of tailored public health interventions for migrants. In particular, migrants are especially vulnerable during a health emergency or disease outbreak and tailored approaches can be more effective than mainstream approaches. The paper advocates for the use of tailored interventions alongside the strengthening of universal health care to improve the health of migrants.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 193
Author(s):  
Kadjo Yves Cedric Adja ◽  
Davide Golinelli

Abstract COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of public, universal and equal access health-care, and reminded us that challenges are always incumbent for health-care systems. Because accessible and universal health-care systems will be critical into the future, it will be crucial to earmark adequate resources, fostering the financing of sectors that for many years have been neglected such as primary care and public health, and investments in new models of care and in health-related workforce.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document