By Jalil Safaei
All decisions whether at the individual or collective level involve some allocation of resources and their consequent outcomes. Nowhere as in the area of health is such allocation critical. Allocation of resources in the healthcare settings often relate to the urgent issues of suffering and relief, if not matters of death and life. That by itself has drawn massive attention to the healthcare system.
A key area of resource allocation, as far as health is concerned, is that of public (i.e. collective) versus private (i.e. individual) health. Broadly speaking, public health is concerned with the health of populations in their communities with a focus on the prevention of ill health. Private health, on the other hand, is concerned with the restoration of the health of individuals through the current medical care system.
If we believe in the old wisdom that prevention is more effective and less costly than cure, then one wonders why we allocate the lion’s share of our resources to curing patients through the medical care system and not on preventing people from becoming patients in the first place!
A rethinking of our approach to health and reorienting of resources towards public health is even more called for at a time of fiscal constrain and rising healthcare costs. If we are serious about public health and cost control, it is prime time to show our commitment to both in our policy directions and budgetary allocations.
– Jalil Safaei, Associate Professor at the University of Northern British Columbia