Health Features Types of Healthcare Delivery Political Science YouTube Lecture Handouts

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Health Features Types of Healthcare Delivery Political Science

  • Healthcare or wellness is a sector in any economy
  • It refers to the ability of individuals or communities to rid themselves of diseases, ailments or injuries.
  • Healthcare is regarded an important agenda for politics today.
Illustration: Health Features Types of Healthcare Delivery Political Science YouTube Lecture Handouts

Features

  • Health policies varies across countries, communities and individuals.
  • Financial conditions, geographic barriers and personal limitations such as lack of ability to communicate with healthcare providers.
  • Limitations to healthcare services negatively the use of medical services, the efficacy of treatments.
  • Healthcare systems are organisations established to meet the health needs of targeted populations.
  • According to WHO, health care system must have a financing mechanism, well trained and adequately paid staff.
  • Reliable information on which to base decisions and policies, well maintained infrastructure.

Types of Healthcare Delivery

  • Primary care refers to work of health professionals who act as a first point of consultation for all patients.
  • Examples of primary care would be general practitioner or family physician.
  • Primary care is used to as a term for the health care services that play a role in the local community.
  • Secondary care includes acute care: necessary treatment for serious illness.
  • Secondary care also involves skill in child birth, psychiatry, psychology etc.
  • Tertiary care involves consultative health care requiring advanced skills and equipment.
  • Examples are neurosurgery, cancer treatment, cardiac surgery, neonatology etc.
  • Quaternary care is used to describe highly advanced medicinal practices which are not easily accessed.
  • Community care involves use of facilities outside of conventional healthcare infrastructure.
  • Involves healing substance abuse disorders, self-care, rehabilitation etc which does not require advance skills.

Healthcare in India

  • India has a combination of both private and public healthcare.
  • Public hospitals are entirely free for all Indian citizens except for a few symbolic payments.
  • As of 2020,300 million Indians are covered by some or the other insurance plan.

National Health Policy (1983)

  • National Health Policy focuses on three main points:
    • Growing burden of non-communicable diseases;
    • Creating a robust healthcare industry;
    • On growing incidences of unsustainable expenditure;
  • It noted that most people pay out of pocket expenditures for healthcare expenses.
  • Private sector encouragement had worked but hardly anything had been spent on public health programmes, only 1.8% of GDP.

Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

  • This was launched in 2018 as a component of Ayushman Bharat, the largest health insurance scheme in the world.
  • It aims at providing a health cover of 5 lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary care.
  • It is fully funded by the Government, implementation shared 60 - 40 between centre and state.
  • It subsumed the existing Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana.

Multiple Choice Questions

Which one of these is an example of Primary healthcare?

(A) General Physician

(B) Family doctor

(C) Both (A) and (B)

(D) Neither (A) nor (B)

Answer: C

Which of the following is NOT a feature of PM Jan Arogya Yojana?

(A) It is a part of Ayushman Bharat programme

(B) It has subsumed National Rural Health Mission

(C) It provides insurance cover upto two lakhs

(D) Both B and C

Answer: D

Mayank