Health Policy

Health policy can be defined as the decisions, plans and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific healthcare goals within a society. The cited article reports that, according to the World Health Organization, an explicit health policy defines a vision for the future, outlines priorities and the expected roles of different groups, and builds consensus and informs people. It lists many categories, among them global health policy, public health policy, mental health policy, health care services policy, insurance policy, pharmaceutical policy and vaccination or tobacco control policy, and it says health policy may also cover healthcare delivery topics such as financing, access to care, quality of care and health equity. Policies grouped under this entry are those on health.