HLTH260 Final: 2.1- Population Health and Social Epidemiology
6 Aug 2015
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Canada has recognized for a long time that social determinants of health and their unequal distribution among populations represents the next frontier for reducing health inequalities. Canada introduced universal public health insurance in 1971. The proportion of health care costs covered by the public system in canada (~70%) is among the lowest of member nations of the organization for economic cooperation and development. Shifts in political economy of the nation has led to welfare state retrenchment and governmental withdrawal from assuring an equitable distribution of the social determinants of health across the population. Canada does not routinely collect information on the social class or occupational status of citizens that would allow these to be used as health equality indicators. Geoffrey rose (2008: father of population health . The scale and pattern of diseases reflect the way people live and their social, economic, and environmental circumstances, and all of these can change quickly (2008: critique of rose"s approach.
