Public Health and Social Medicine redux

[chickenfeet]

A couple of weeks ago I posted about an idea I had for some research on whether tax payer funded healthcare systems would be more inclined to invest in Public Health. It's not going to happen. I have done enough digging to convince myself that the data isn't available.

The key pieces of evidence are:
(a) WHO does not split out Public Health Spending.
(b) The comparative articles that I have found don't quantify total Public Health spending or even, mostly, spending on individual interventions.
(c) Comparative studies generally exclude the USA, presumably because data is particularly hard to come by.

So it goes.

Comments

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

Apropos of this topic, may I pick your brain a bit?

I'm having trouble getting health care for my refugees. The freestanding clinics don't seem to want to take IFH (http://www.settlement.org/sys/faqs_detail.asp?faq_id=4000303) clients without charging per visit, and this is for stuff like Pap smear/STD screening and possible bronchitis. But the community health clinics are happy to take th eones within their catchment area.

Before I raise TOO much Hell I'd quite like to know if I have a leg to stand on. Do you have any experience with this?

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

It's not really my area of expertise. That said, I don't think that any practitioner is obliged to take a patient so I guess that they are within their rights to refuse to see an IFH funded client. I'm at a bit of a loss as to why they should do so though. Generally, primary care clinics welcome legit non OHIP business because, unlike OHIP, it isn't capped.