Health Care Memo

The purpose of this memo is to provide three critical features of a well functioning health system that will ensure more efficiency, equitability and responsiveness to citizens. This memo will also outline why each attribute is important to the system and will provide a real world example of a country that has already implemented these features. A functioning health system is characterized by the following traits: equal access to people centered care, health financing to protect citizens against financial constraints from treating poor health and providing excellent health service delivery to the population. Having equal access to people centered care means all citizens who are using health services will have the opportunity to participate

People centered care is all about working alongside patients, having proper communication, providing support on the emotional level and integrating patient care. Adding this type of care to a healthcare system is important because it is lessening the pressures put on health services, its allowing people to get the care when they need it most, the quality of services offered are better and overall it is improving individual health status. People centered care also gives people the opportunity to participate more in caring after themselves. An example of a country that has already implemented this feature is the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, patients are allowed to select their own health providers, therapists, health institutions and insurance policies that best fit their

These services are characterized by health districts or networks that have hospitals with health specialists and a wide range of benefits and interventions for many health issues. Specifically, people can get proper disease prevention, diagnosis of illnesses, treatments, strategies for managing illnesses, rehabilitation and services to care for life threatening diseases. It is critical to have guidelines in how these services are distributed to ensure its quality, safety and effectiveness so individuals can be covered and receive the best care when they need it. A functioning healthcare system will also deliver these services on an equal basis meaning every citizen will have access to the highest quality services, especially to disadvantaged populations. Health funding is not enough to have a proper health care system if the services being delivered are not done effectively and is leading to low performance levels or no gain in health outcomes. Therefore, high level health service-delivery performance is a key determinant of a functioning health system that will better improve individual health. An example of a country that has implemented this feature is England which has the National Health Service that outlines that every citizen has access to health services such as vaccination programs, mental health care, outpatient and inpatient hospital care, dental care and