Public Health Local and Global Perspectives

Politics and health are inextricably linked through the government’s responsibility to provide health care funded by taxation. The political determinants of health underpin, directly and indirectly, all other determinants of health. Therefore, public health is innately political by the very virtue of its existence and its vulnerability to political cycles, political agendas, political will and promises of change. This chapter introduces the fundamental concepts associated with political determinants of public health. To begin with, the chapter discusses government responsibility for providing health services and people’s right to access health care. Australia’s healthcare system is distinctive, and this is explored in the next section of the chapter. Next, the chapter considers healthcare costs in the political context. The next section covers ideas about evidence-based policy and what counts as ‘evidence’. The last section covers advocacy and ethics, in particular the role of advocacy for better health outcomes (especially for at-risk groups), ethics as underpinning advocacy and coercive policies, people’s rights and population outcomes.