Health Promotion and Aging
Homework help – Write a 7 page paper (not including the cover page, abstract and references) comparing and contrasting the US and at least two other countries public health policies regarding health promotion and aging
Abstract
Health promotion for the aging population requires various public health policies. The policies are essential to reduce the cost of the rising number of elderly people who require healthcare services. The United States of America has initiated various policies such as the Affordable Care Act to boost access to healthcare services and reduce the cost. Similarly, other countries have established policies that cater to their aging population. China has overhauled the pension system to make it cost-effective for the government and friendly to the elderly population. Japan is also among the countries that have clear public health policies to foster healthcare for the aging generation. Japan has initiated policies to encourage people to work beyond their retirement years to ensure they remain active and healthy. Therefore, there are various similarities and differences that exist in public health policies in the three countries. One of the similarities is that they have an increasing population of an aging generation and thus cost-effective strategies are needed. One of the major differences is that while some are comfortable with a nursing home such as America, China’s culture does not freely embrace nursing homes for elderly parents. The world is thus required to develop public health policies to cater for the welfare of the elderly population.
Keywords: public health policies, aging population, health promotion.
Health Promotion and Aging
Health promotion for the aging population is essential since they are at risk of chronic diseases. Chronic diseases include cancer, stroke, diabetes mellitus, heart disease, chronic bronchitis, and Alzheimer disease (Haber, 2016). Statistics indicate that over 46 million people representing 14.5 percent are 65 years and above. In Japan, 27 percent of the population is 65 years and above. In China, over 222 million people are in the aging population bracket (Li & Otani, 2018). Health promotion is thus crucial since such a population is at risk of chronic disease. Failure to properly manage the health condition of the aging population will result in death and high cost of healthcare. Public health policies meant to promote the health of people above 65 years and above can effectively promote health conditions for the aged. Statistics indicate that approximately 98 percent of aged people have at least two chronic diseases (Sudo, Kobayashi, Noda, Fukuda & Takahashi, 2018). Public health policies are thus meant to promote health among the aged and consequently reduce the burden of healthcare in the already stressed healthcare system.
Public Health Policies in America
America has a robust healthcare system for the aging population. It has developed and implemented various policies to cater for the welfare of the aged. The policies in America focus on reducing the cost of health for the aging population (Tkatch et al., 2016). The cost of healthcare has been increasing over the years leading to a lack of access to quality services due to high costs. The introduction of the Affordable Care Act by former President Obama’s administration was a way of standardizing the health cost. Additionally, the aging generation requires to access healthcare services despite their ethnicity or background (Ashby & Beech, 2016). In the past, people were restricted from accessing quality healthcare if they were from specific ethnic groups. However, there are now policies that indicate that healthcare should be provided to all.
Older Americans Act (OAA) has been reauthorized to ensure the policies are in line with the changing technology and healthcare requirements. The focus of reauthorization is to ensure seamless coordination with local agencies to promote better healthcare provision to the aged (Haber, 2016). Additionally, it provides directions on how to manage home and community-based systems of hosting the aged population. Policies in America have also indicated the need for the aging population to be attended to when they are at home. The money follows a person program is intended to ensure patients can be taken care of whenever they are. Therefore, the focus is to enhance access to quality care (Ashby & Beech, 2016). Additionally, policies have also boosted access to quality care through technological advancements on telehealth. Patients can thus find their doctors online and receive the necessary medical attention.
Elder Justice Act in America is meant to protect the elderly from any form of abuse by the healthcare providers, family members or colleagues due to their healthcare. Additionally, public health policies provide a strategic direction toward regulating nursing homes and long-term healthcare facilities (Haber, 2016). The focus is to ensure the patients are well taken care of despite their health conditions. Public health policies also indicate that the aged should be educated on their rights and privileges which will ensure they demand their rights or report cases of denied rights (Tkatch et al., 2016). Therefore, the American aging population has a robust public health policy framework to foster access to quality care at an affordable cost.
Public Health Policies in China
Statistics indicate that China has over 222 million people in the bracket. The numbers are likely to increase to due to advancements in healthcare and the rising life expectancy. China has elaborate public health policies to cater to the aging population (Sudo, Kobayashi, Noda, Fukuda & Takahashi, 2018). One of them is that the government has initiated various reforms in the pharmaceutical sector. The policy indicates that all the medication in the Essential Drug List is sold at an affordable cost. The focus of the government is to reduce the cost of healthcare in the country after a crisis of high costs associated with taking care of the aged (Li & Otani, 2018). Another policy is to ensure that all the pharmaceutical companies that were previously operated by corruption cartels are operating genuinely. The reason is that eliminating corruption will lower the cost of medical equipment and drugs.
The Chinese government has also developed policies to reduce the cost of healthcare by building primary healthcare facilities. The role of the primary health centers is to ensure they relieve congestion in general hospitals (Ashby & Beech, 2016). Additionally, the primary health centers will be customized for the aging population to ensure they can easily access quality healthcare. There is also a policy that will help seek funding from families or abroad due to the rising budget for healthcare needs. The idea is to enhance nursing homes and pain management facilities that take care of the aging population. On the other hand, rising demand for elderly care has led to the government to overhaul the pension system (Sudo, Kobayashi, Noda, Fukuda & Takahashi, 2018). The new pension policy is aimed at providing pension schemes for the growing population of elderly people who have retired and require quality care.
The high population of the elderly population in China requires a wide spectrum of policies that will address healthcare issues. The population is distributed in rural and urban areas. Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance Scheme was introduced to cater to people who could not afford healthcare. New rural cooperative medical scheme policy was intended to cater to the aging people living in rural areas (Suzman, Beard, Boerma, & Chatterji, 2015). On the other hand, it was not in the culture of Chinese to take a parent to a nursing home. However, the government has initiated elderly home policies that ensure people change their mindsets. They also ensure that the quality of the facilities is superb. The Chinese government has initiated a policy to foster community-care for the elderly as compared to home-based care. The reason is that the Chinese believe in taking care of their parents from their homes. Although one of the community-based projects initiated in 2005 failed, the government has continued to push for the development of community-based care (Li & Otani, 2018). The public health policies have also included food, clothing, medical expenses, burial expenses, and housing for the aged when they are admitted in the nursing homes.
Public Health Policies in Japan
Japan has the highest number of people who are 65 years and above. Japan government has a health insurance policy to help the aged access quality healthcare. The insurance was introduced specifically introduced due to the rising number of old and poor people who could not access healthcare services due to the high cost of care (Sudo, Kobayashi, Noda, Fukuda & Takahashi, 2018). The insurance plan covers over 13 million people who previously did not have adequate access to healthcare. Japan is also aiming at creating a comfortable living environment for the aging population. They have the policy to create houses, towns, and transport systems that will be custom-made for the elderly generation. The transportation system involves driverless automobiles and artificial intelligence to enhance the comfort of the aging population (MacLeod et al., 2018). The reason is that most of the health complications for the aging population depend on the environment they are living in. The government also has policies to implement sporting activities for the aged to make them live a healthy life.
Japan has an elaborate health policy framework for the aging population due to the high number of people who are seeking medical care. Therefore, the country has introduced policies for close monitoring of patients to avoid unnecessary deaths. It has thus initiated policies to promote remote access to healthcare (MacLeod et al., 2018). Therefore, patients can access health services for people from any location. Telehealth is essential due to the poor distribution of medical professionals. Remote areas have few doctors while the urban areas have the highest number of healthcare providers. Additionally, the government has developed policies that enhance the health of the aging population by educating them to live in a healthy way. The policies indicate that senior citizens should exercise on a regular basis to boost their health. There are over 1,800 studies with over 840,000 female members above 63 years who have signed up for regular exercises (Kim & Jang, 2018). For example, a smart city has been developed in Tokyo for elderly people. The population of the smart city is 400,000 elderly people. Smart cities have social support groups, medical care, and barrier-free transport system.
Japan has also initiated policies that encourage people to work beyond their retirement years. They have extended the retirement years to allow people to continue working and keep themselves healthy (Lafortune, Huson, Santi & Stolee, 2015). Although the country is focusing on filling the employment gaps, it is ensuring that people will remain healthy when they remain active in their workplace. Additionally, the number of people who are supported by the government after retirement is also low when senior citizens extend their working years (Kim & Jang, 2018). Additionally, the government has initiated policies to keep the aged busy and healthy by creating second-life careers. They involve friendly projects such as running a café or growing vegetables in a controlled environment.
Similarities of Public Health Policies
The three countries are all struggling to establish friendly and cost-effective policies for the aging population. The growth in healthcare technology and healthy eating habits has promoted better healthcare leading to increased life expectancy (Suzman, Beard, Boerma, & Chatterji, 2015). The policies in Japan, America, and China are focused on introducing strategies that are cost effective. For example, in America, over 70 million people are leaving the workforce every year. Such a population needs medical care, yet they are not earning. In China, over 222 million people are over 60 years and above. The population requires billions of dollars to sustain every year. Therefore, the governments are overhauling some of the traditional approaches to pension or insurance or medical care to boost affordability (Ashby & Beech, 2016). For example, the United States initiated the Affordable Care Act with the intention of reducing the increasing cost of medical care from the insurance companies.
The aging population is increasing at a dramatic rate across the world. It is expected that in America, the aging population will grow to 50 million people by 2050, whereas across the world the population will have increased to 2 billion by 2050 (Ashby & Beech, 2016). Therefore, friendly and effective policies are required for implementation in the three countries. A study on the policies shows that while the aging population increases, the shortage of nursing staffing ratios increase. Therefore, the policies that will eradicate the current problem of public healthcare for the elderly will require a comprehensive approach. It will involve seeking funding to buy drugs and medical equipment, increasing the healthcare providers, expand hospitals’ capacity and embrace technology in the provision of healthcare (Haber, 2016). For example, China has adopted a number of artificial intelligence systems that can help the elderly to live a comfortable life.
Conclusion
The health problems associated with elderly people in society across the world requires a comprehensive approach. The governments in various countries have designed policies to boost the quality of elderly care. The United States of America has instituted a number of policies that focus on reducing the cost of healthcare. Affordable Care Act is a classic example of the government’s approach to ensure access to medical services for all at an affordable cost. On the other hand, China has also overhauled the pension system to ensure it is cost-effective. The government has also created an Essential Drug List that will ensure all elderly patients can access medical care at a reduced cost. Therefore, public health policies in the three countries have made successful attempts to promote health for the aging population.
References
Ashby, S., & Beech, R. (2016). Addressing the healthcare needs of an aging population: the need for an integrated solution. International Journal of Collaborative Research on Internal Medicine & Public Health, 8(4), 284.
Haber, D. (2016). Health Promotion and Aging, Seventh Edition. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Kim, C. O., & Jang, S. N. (2018). Home-based primary care for homebound older adults: Literature review. Annals of Geriatric Medicine and Research, 22(2), 62-72.
Lafortune, C., Huson, K., Santi, S., & Stolee, P. (2015). Community-based primary health care for older adults: a qualitative study of the perceptions of clients, caregivers and health care providers. BMC Geriatrics, 15(1), 57.
Li, F., & Otani, J. (2018). Financing elderly people’s long‐term care needs: Evidence from China. The International journal of health planning and management, 33(2), 479-488.
MacLeod, S., Schwebke, K., Hawkins, K., Ruiz, J., Hoo, E., & Yeh, C. S. (2018). Need for comprehensive health care quality measures for older adults. Population health management, 21(4), 296-302.
Sudo, K., Kobayashi, J., Noda, S., Fukuda, Y., & Takahashi, K. (2018). Japan’s healthcare policy for the elderly through the concepts of self-help (Ji-jo), mutual aid (Go-jo), social solidarity care (Kyo-jo), and governmental care (Ko-jo). Bioscience trends, 12(1), 7-11.
Suzman, R., Beard, J. R., Boerma, T., & Chatterji, S. (2015). Health in an aging world—what do we know? The Lancet, 385(9967), 484-486.
Tkatch, R., Musich, S., MacLeod, S., Alsgaard, K., Hawkins, K., & Yeh, C. S. (2016). Population health management for older adults: Review of interventions for promoting successful aging across the health continuum. Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, 2, 2333721416667877.
– Healthcare Homework Help Service
