250-275 words, peer reviewed sources.
Public Health Spending
Advantages
The allocation of money for the provision of public healthcare is of advantage to the public. Public health spending leads to the improvement of healthcare facilities, equipment, and services. It also leads to a decrease in mortality. When healthcare is affordable and accessible to the public, there will be less health related deaths. A study by Marton, Sung and Honore (2015) indicated a decrease in morbidity from heart disease in relation to increased public health funding.
Funding the public health also gives the healthcare sector the opportunity to address matters of national concern such as communicable diseases and immunizations. Public health spending improves the financial situation of the beneficiaries. Through public health programs such as Medicaid, low-income individuals are able to access quality healthcare at a small cost (Himmelstein & Woolhandler, 2016). The money that would have been spent in healthcare can then be used for other purposes, therefore improving the livelihood of the people.
Disadvantages
Public health is spending, however, comes with some disadvantages. Public health funding affects the government financially. Each year, the federal government spends billions of dollars in safeguarding the public’s health which leads to reduced spending in other sectors in the economy. (Himmelstein & Woolhandler, 2016).
Because of the lowered cost of treatment, hospitals will be overwhelmed with outpatients making it difficult for healthcare workers to attend to urgent cases. For example, with the introduction of the affordable healthcare act, the number of people seeking health services has increased as more people enroll into health insurance programs (Marton, Sung, & Honore , 2015). Public health spending also leads to an increase in taxation as the government tries to raise funds for public healthcare; resulting in increased tax on high-income earners.
References
Himmelstein, D. U., & Woolhandler, S. (2016). Public health’s falling share of US health spending.American journal of public health,106(1), 56-57.
Marton, J., Sung, J., & Honore, P. (2015). Does more public health spending buy better health?.Health services research and managerial epidemiology,2, 2333392815580750.
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