The welfare of the citizen living in a country relies on their well being health-wise. If a country does not have good health structures and policies in place, then that country stands to lose far much more human resources than anticipated. In Washington State however, proper health policies have been put in place in an effort to make sure that the people residing there, be they US citizens or qualified alien immigrants, have proper medical care. The Federal and the County governments have structures that make this possible.
This paper shall discuss these systems and the insurance modalities in place. Health care system in Washington is at advanced state and has been focused on both the rich as well as the poor in the country. Introduction Good public health care to all is a major requirement to the government especially with the increase in diseases. A healthy nation will in return have better or improved production and this will translate into good / improved economic growth. Economic stability is a dream for every committed government but without proper health, then this becomes hard to achieve.
But then, what exactly has the Washington State done to improve the well being of its residents? This is the question that we shall be looking at as we try to bring to light the good policies that have been put in place and what is in the pipeline. Washington State has a policy of Basic health care service whose mandate is to serve its citizen that are termed according to FPL (Federal Poverty Level), to be between 0 – 200% in rating. The mission for Washington State Department of Health is to strive to have a safer and healthier Washington.
The Washington’s Public health System is made up of 39 Counties and is served by 35 Local Health jurisdictions, Board of Health and other public / private partners. The WSDH (Washington State Department of Health) was actually founded in 1989 with an aim to promoting and protection of public health, maintain the quality standard of good health care delivery, monitor and moderate the cost of health care and plan for activities within the State that relate to the health of its citizens.
The Governor appoints the Secretary of Health as prescribed in the Health Department’s Statutory Authority Code of Washington 43. 70. 020 the revised version. There are 35 Local Health Districts/ Departments in Washington which are Local Government Agencies (But they are not established as Satellite offices which are setup by the State Department of Health or set up by the State Board of Health). The main mandate of the Local Health Department is that of disease prevention, health promotion and building of a healthy community.
Washington State Board of Health is made up of a 10 – member Board and is responsible for providing the public / citizens with a forum for them to aid in developing making Public Health policies. It is mandated to promote health goals and strategies to the legislature as well as activities regulation which include immunization, drinking water and safe food handling among others. Although the Board is independent, it is housed together with the Department of Health.
There are other Public / Private Health programs that run together with the Public Health Partner apart from Medicaid and Medicare and they include Hospitals and clinics, School of Public Health and Community Medicine in University of Washington, State and community based organizations and coalition, Urban Indian and American Indian tribes Health programs. The Public Health Partners also work closely with the Federal Agencies like Department of Health and Human Services, Centre for disease prevention and control, National Institute of Health and the Department of Agriculture.
The State has Health Insurance companies that provide health covers for Doctor office visit, Mental hospital service, Emergency care service, Surgery, Ambulance service, Prescription drugs, immunization, Hospitalization, X-ray, Home health care, Specialty care, Eye exam, maternity care, Oxygen respiratory service among others. It is unfortunate that there are companies that dominate the health insurance sectors providing unhealthy competition and incase of their downfall then this might spell doom. The top leading companies are listed in the table below together with their market capitalization.