The local and national economy impacts the health of a community in terms of employment, health costs and financial access to different services in the field. For instance, if the local and national economy is unstable, this might lead to the loss of health coverage for many individuals. The inability to afford continuous community coverage negatively impacts the health of a community, as demonstrated in research (Reeves, McKee, Basu, & Stuckler, 2014). In addition, the effects of recession on healthcare delivery might be quite persistent and reflect negatively in providing adequate services to a community. Specific negative effects might be represented by loss of investment income, insufficient charitable activities and cuts in healthcare funding. Recession is also found to have more severe impacts on physicians in the sense of pushing them to postpone their retirement plans. These aspects clearly show that essential economic factors tend to affect the use and delivery of healthcare services.
Economy plays an important role in the health of communities because strong and stable local and national economy implies the delivery of optimal, high quality healthcare services to individuals. When economy is presented at a state of proper functioning, this usually means adequate employment opportunities, which directly translate in greater investments in the healthcare fields (Herzlinger, 2010). As a result, more resources are utilized to improve the health of communities.
A community can impact healthcare by supporting higher healthcare rates and investments by raising public awareness of the importance of making such investments in the respective field. Through the introduction of various initiatives, different stakeholders might adopt a flexible approach to address the needs and expectations for healthcare services among members of different communities (Herzlinger, 2010). It should be emphasized that improving the financial bases of healthcare would automatically lead to substantial improvements of quality and ethical parameters of the respective services.
References
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Herzlinger, R. E. (2010). Healthcare reform and its implications for the U.S. economy. Business Horizons, 53(2), 105-117.
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Reeves, A., McKee, M., Basu, S., & Stuckler, D. (2014). The political economy of austerity and healthcare: Cross-national analysis of expenditure changes in 27 European nations 1995-2011. Health Policy, 115(1), 1-8.