The Role of Public Policy in Ensuring Public Health

Abstract

A healthy population is the key to the long-term development and existence of any state. Therefore, one of the important tasks of the state is the development and implementation of relevant policies aimed at maintaining and strengthening the health of all segments of the population. The purpose of this study was to determine the role, influence and instruments of public policy for the preservation and promotion of public health. During the study, a retrospective analysis of the literature data, as well as the legal framework of Ukraine in the field of maintaining the health of the population, was performed. Adequate policies that may have an impact on the health of the population are implemented through ensuring the population's access to medical care; social protection measures; education and through economic aspects. The mechanism for implementing policies to ensure public health includes institutions and organizations that form the policy and interaction of all participants to implement policies, as well as regulatory and legal documents through which these initiatives are actually implemented. Today Ukraine is in difficult social and economic conditions. There is a negative trend in the health of the population. However, despite this, Ukraine implements policies to preserve and improve the health of the population by joining the global process of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals; adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On the system of public health”, which is aimed at protecting and strengthening the health of the population, preventing diseases, improving the quality and increasing life expectancy, ensuring the sanitary and epidemic well-being of the population; development of regulatory documents on priority areas for the development of the healthcare sector for the period up to 2025.