Abstract
There are a number of levels at which population health can be applied and the highest is at the policy level. More so than clinical medicine, population health requires a policy environment that is conducive to the implementation of initiatives geared to populations rather than individuals. To date, it could be argued that existing policy at various levels of government (and particularly at the federal level) hinder rather than help the application of population health to our nation’s health problems. Reimbursement policies that reward treatment rather than prevention, limitations on the scope of public health, deficiencies in the operation of the Food and Drug Administration and even pushback against Michelle Obama for promoting health eating for kids limit the impact of population health efforts. The implications of various policies are often overlooked and a systematic review of public policy at all levels is essential.
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Thomas, R.K. (2021). Population Health and Public Policy. In: Population Health and the Future of Healthcare. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83887-4_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83887-4_9
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