Public Health Essay Sample: Cross-national Information in Healthcare Sector

The sources of cross-national information are so proliferated in a manner such that it becomes very difficult for a policymaker in one country to get in terms with that which is going on in another country. This inaccessibility of data makes the capacity of flow of information across nations makes it very difficult to learn and generate great ideas.

Learning from other is also made difficult by the fact that different nations have different health policies whose application in other nations may be difficult. Institutional differences are also another reason for differences in the application of health policies. There exist limitations in which countries should be studied and to some extent reliance on their policy.

Comparative research effectiveness is challenged by patient heterogeneity. That is the fact that different treatments yield different results in different patients making it hard to generalize a policy. Once again the results of different studies conducted for different subpopulation may vary due to discrepancies in provider skill. Sometimes adoption of such policies becomes a challenge because the nation borrowing the information may not have the adequate skilled personnel to aid in execution.

Again different nations are struggling with different health issues and are at different stages of financial maturity which makes it hard to come up with a common base for drawing lessons regarding health-related issues. Due to this non-uniformity, it is hard to deliver on a sound base for generating new ideas and policies. For another reason, the rapidly changing technology causes for numerous time to time adjustments which may inflate the health expenditures making it unaffordable.

Some countries are already committed to various unions whose ideologies they subscribe to making it difficult to fit in newly formed organizations. For instance, European Union states, subscribe to common ideologies and even congregate how they come up with new policies be it trade or health policies which makes it hard to adopt health policy solutions from other countries outside their regions.

Conflicting interests of policymakers and the policyholders act as stumbling blocks towards achieving common grounds for drawing lessons and adopting solutions to various health problems from other countries. While policymakers and analysts table what they think is best for one nation the sources of finance call for a lot of policy scrutiny which may demoralize the policy analysts as they tend to imagine their efforts are downplayed.

For successful health policy formulation, implementation and execution there needs to be a comparative health systems analysis. Although it may be difficult to learn from other countries experiences when it comes to matters of health policies, health system analysis will help in improving the overall performance and also in strengthening the healthcare systems.

References

Berman, P., Ahuja, R., and Bhandari, L. (2010). The Impoverishing Effect of Healthcare Payments in India: New Methodology and Findings. Economic and Political Weekly, 65-71.

Marmor, T., Freeman, R., & Okma, K. (2005). Comparative Perspectives and Policy Learning in the World of Health Care. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 7(4), 331-348.