Essay onStrengthening Primary Health Care: US & Canada's Role in Eliminating Global Threat

Even though we live in modern times, most health systems worldwide are still faced with weak primary health care systems. The United Nations has considered weak primary health systems as one of the main threats of health in 2019 (World Health Organization, 2019). The United States and Canada have made positive strides towards eliminating this threat in recent times. One of the recent initiatives set by the United States federal government towards this initiative is the Affordable care act and HIIV/AIDS. This initiative aims to provide Americans, including those with preexisting conditions like HIV/AIDS, the opportunity to improve health care coverage while also giving more health insurance options (Hamel et al., 2014). In Canada, these challenges are harmonized through the Medicare program, which guarantees universal health to all. These universal health measures were further reinforced through the Canada Health Act in 1984, which guaranteed federal support for individual insurance programs in all provinces in Canada (Martin et al., 2018).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The advantage of the Affordable Care Act is that it supports people at risk with preexisting conditions like HIV and asthma. More people can also access more affordable health care and medicine. Some of the weaknesses of this program might be that it mostly caters to people with HIV/AIDS and the elderly. The Canadian health system, which is publicly funded and known as Medicare, provides equitable access to physicians and hospital services. The weakness of the Canadian Health Act lies in the fact that it does not cover all ailments like oral health, which is not included in this Act.

Social determinants of health have a significant effect on access to primary health systems. An individual with limited economic stability will not be able to access necessary health services when faced with complicated ailments. Other factors like Health care systems also impact the quality of primary health services provided to people. The US government has addressed costs associated with its Act through regulatory a framework that contains cots in the program through setting a per capital target for how much is spent and also the creating an Independent Payment Advisory board responsible for reducing spending when the target has been surpassed (Hamel et al., 2014).

The quality and access of these services are reinforced through regular evaluations of the progress being made and public initiatives to educate the public on the advantages of taking advantage of the program. In Canada, costs are evaluated annually when the federal minister of health reports to the Canadian government how the Act has been progressing in each province. Any province that does not meet the government's set criteria risks having their funds withheld by the federal government (Martin et al., 2018). There is also a constant reevaluation of services to ensure services provided are of high quality and constant public engagements to increase access to these services.

The Impact of the Affordable Health care Act ensured that millions of people locked out of many insurance companies due to different reasons like low socio-economic status and preexisting conditions now have access to essential medical services. Globally, countries that want to develop their primary health systems may adopt these strategies to increase medical coverage. Similarly, the Canada Universal Health initiative has been adopted in other countries like Mexico, which recently adopted universal health care for all in January 2020.

The Affordable care act in the United States has had different implications on the role of the nurse in the country. The nurse's most crucial role will be to identify any potential issues that hinder the accessibility of these services. Similarly, in the Canadian Health Act, nurses play a role in integrating health services by delivering evidence-based care.

Some global health issues have led to swift responses from the US government to ensure that it set an example to other countries globally. For example, the global health concern in 2014 was the Ebola outbreak, and the US government responded through a provision of 570 million dollars to the CDC (Heymann et al., 2015). There was also the strengthening of local response coordination and the boosting of health-care facilities' capacity to deal with any potential outbreak. The Canadian government responds appropriately to different global health concerns by establishing the Canadian Institute of health research, which is responsible for creating new information and using this information to improve and strengthen health care systems locally.

One of the essential roles a nurse can play in advocating for the incorporation of a global perceptive in local health care systems is solidarity within the nursing profession. Participating in nursing associations is important since well-organized nursing associations are potent vehicles in influencing and achieving nurse related goals. Nurse Leaders should work with local and national nursing associations to bring all preceptive on policies and other emerging health issues to light (Edmonson et al., 2017).

The incorporation of global perceptive can impact local practice by directing much-needed attention to responding to health needs that are continually changing and are emerging as a result of globalization. The integration of some global and international concepts into the local practice can have the effect of providing useful information to the local community that, in turn, can help reduce the adverse effects of the global health concerns once it reaches the local community. The nurse leader will thus have more responsibilities in educating the public on emerging health issues. These efforts will make sure that there is the integration of clinical topics like the spread of infectious disease, therefore, meeting the needs of populations that are vulnerable.

These efforts can also be described as having a significant social impact since one raises awareness on emerging health issues that the public might not have enough information on. This had proved successful in some campaigns like when four health systems in Dignity health, Sacramento Davis, Kaiser Permanente joined forces to raise community awareness on emerging global health issues (Berg & Orlowski, 2019). Incorporation of global preceptive can contribute to social changes by eliminating particular misconceptions that may exist in a community on a particular global health condition. The significant health-care challenges the US faces like global poverty, health care reform, and HIV/AIDS need nurses and physicians to have skills and passion for advocating for public policies that improve health equity and health and communities.

References

Berg, J. G., & Orlowski, C. (2019). Increasing Primary Care Capacity Through Academic Preparation and Effective Utilization of Registered Nurses in Team-Based Delivery.

Edmonson, C., McCarthy, C., Trent-Adams, S., McCain, C., & Marshall, J. (2017). Emerging global health issues: A nurse’s role. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 22(1).

Hamel, M. B., Blumenthal, D., & Collins, S. R. (2014). Health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act—a progress report. The New England journal of medicine, 371(3), 275-81.

Heymann, D. L., Chen, L., Takemi, K., Fidler, D. P., Tappero, J. W., Thomas, M. J., ... & Kalache, A. (2015). Global health security: the wider lessons from the west African Ebola virus disease epidemic. The Lancet, 385(9980), 1884-1901.

Martin, D., Miller, A. P., Quesnel-Vallée, A., Caron, N. R., Vissandjée, B., & Marchildon, G. P. (2018). Canada's universal health-care system: achieving its potential. The Lancet, 391(10131), 1718-1735.

World Health Organization. (2019). Preventing disease through healthy environments: exposure to highly hazardous pesticides: a major public health concern (No. WHO/CED/PHE/EPE/19.4. 6). World Health Organization.