Health in Dominican Republic, Ecuador & Mexico

[Name of the Institute]Health in Dominican Republic, Ecuador & Mexico

Introduction

Health provisions differ around the world. Nearly all developed countries offer universal health care. Health provision is a challenging issue for nations due to the high costs needed by the health sector along with different cultural, social, economic and political conditions of the country. There are various systems and issues that emerge when provisions of health care are concerned. In this report, the issue of health in Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Mexico is discussed.

Identification of Health Issue

Identification of health issue is significant for developing an infrastructure to deal with it. The issue of health is not a regional problem that exists in some part of the world and does not exist in the other. Rather, it is a global problem. Issues of health keep on arising across the globe. There are various types of health issues that this world is confronting. They include diabetes, blood pressure, HIV/AIDS, waterborne and zoonotic diseases and so forth. All the countries continue to improve their health care sectors. The health of the population of a country has enormous effects on the country at various levels.

Dominican Republic

Foreign medical practitioners have given extremely good rating to the health care system of Dominican Republic. All types of medical needs of the population are met by the health care sector. This has extremely good impact on the country at the national level. In 2004, public health spending represented 1.2% of GDP (PAHO, 2007). This shows Dominican Republic`s high expenditures in the health sector.

The Dominican Republic`s health care system is divided into three sub systems. Firstly, there exists a socialized system. This system focuses on the poor citizens of Dominion Republic. People who are covered under the socialized system frequently have to spend some amount of fees for medical supplies and services (http://www.ghi.gov). Secondly, there is a Social Security system. It covers employees who earn less than Dominican Republic $4000 on monthly basis. It covers the workers along with their spouses. People who are under this category and have children require to take out extra insurance for them. The third system comprises private hospitals and clinics that off fee-for-service care. Under a new law, these systems are integrated into one system that offers a medical care of socialized type.

The country`s internal health organizations include ADEG - Dominican Association of Professional Nurses, AEGIDSS - Dominican Nurses Association of the IDSS, CMD - Dominican Association of Medical Doctors and so forth (PAHO, 2007). The nursing associations and CMD are the most active in terms of voicing their demands. Dominican Republic also receives international cooperation in the health sector. It received technical cooperation from various international agencies and organizations such as USAID, PAHO, JICA - Japan International cooperation Agency, UNICEF, UNAIDS and so forth.

A few barriers to providing quality health care in Dominican Republic also exist. For instance, all health care pharmacies either governmental or private ones are not staffed with skilled professional pharmacists as a result ...