There are concrete differences between the fields of public health and health policy. When considering options for improving societal health, decisionmakers and policy analysts often make the mistake of focusing solely on health policy. It is important to remember that public health can play an equal or greater role in improving the quality and longevity of life for society. While it has been shown that America lags behind other industrialized countries in BOTH public health AND health policy, I want to use this page to highlight the major differences between the two disciplines.


Public health primarily focuses on society and prevention while health policy primarily focuses on the individual and the diagnosis/treatment cycle of medical care. We need both of these health tools to work more effectively if we want to improve standards of health in America. Improved medical care and health policy are not a substitute for convincing our society to eat less, exercise more, quit smoking and undertake other preventative measures that lower the need for much more costly medical treatment.


Public health standards are much more difficult to enforce in society than changes in health policy but the costs can be cheaper and lead to much better societal health outcomes. We must emulate Socialized standards of public health, as well as health policy, if we want to see the maximum benefits of truly reinventing the American health system.


Below is an outline of the two fields of public health and health policy. I like using this classic breakdown from the Association for Schools of Public Health.