Health is a topic of constant concern these days. From the issue of national insurance to the biomedical research, from healing doctors to books on medicine, nutrition, and self-healing are all related to health. Health today can be separated into two branches: biomedicine and public health. Biomedicine or health care involves doctors and other hospital workers diagnosing and treating individuals who are already sick with pharmaceutical drugs and surgeries. On the other hand, public health deals with the public, community, and society as a whole, instead of solely an individual. It is about prevention, environment, and social justice. Prevention is solving problems before they become problems. For example, vaccination and education of hygiene help preventing diseases from occurring in our society. Since we interact with our environment every day, it also has an impact on our health. Environment includes social, cultural, and political issues. For instance, if there were many liquor stores in your neighborhood, one would have a high chance to be an alcoholic. Lastly, the aspect of social justice in public health is that health is not a privilege but a right. We are the wealthiest nation in the world but we still do not have an universal health care system. .
Although public health has contributed so much in the history of health, such as implementing the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, unfortunately the general public and the government fail to recognize the importance of public health. Millions of dollars are being put into biomedical health care while little is being spent on public health. Ultimately, the government officials and the National Institute of Health are responsible for the implementation of public health because they are the ones involved in making decisions in terms of how much grants should be given to public health and also in creating new laws that can help improving the overall health of the public.
