Health Policy Research Paper
U.S. HEALTH POLICY
Health Policymaking in the United States involves a complex web of decisions and authorities made by many Health institutions and political actors across a wide range of Public and Private sectors. In the Public sector it may include federal, local, state governments, however; in the Private it consists of the Health care Providers, Health care professional and purchasers, all interacting at the policy cycle and in all of its stage, without having one party dominates one stage of that cycle.
Regarding the Legislative process, it usually starts with the Formulation (i.e. getting problems to the government and agenda setting), Implementation (i.e. this occurs inside public and federal programs, where ideas …show more content…
would be operating), and finally the modification or evaluation phase (Laureate, 2008). A number of features characterize the Legislative process in the U.S. Health care, including: Pluralistic and Interest group politics; where usually the Health policy outcomes and reforms take into full account the demands of these groups, Secondly; Government as Subsidiary to the Private sector, since the Health care is not considered as the primary responsibility of the government in addition to the escalated costs and the excessive regulations’ constraints accompanied with the government sector, accordingly ; this is affecting the government’s role in the health care delivery , giving the credit to the private sector over it. Third, the Impact of the presidential leadership and the congress role, as Americans are always looking to their presidents and their capabilities to positively change the Policies or legislations, in order to make it more compatible with the nation goals (Shi and Singh, 2008) , an example on this point is the reform that has been passing under President Obama, which is “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”, with its multiple determinations to improve the Health care.
The development of a consistent and highly comprehensive Health care might be difficult, especially when Health care policies are highly affected by the political system in the country. The approach that is followed by congress usually tends to solve persuasive problems at a time and not in the framework of the overall Health care policy, in addition, Congress often passes laws that are very general and unclear, giving the bureaucratic agencies a significant power to fill in the details of the law (Patel & Rushefsky, 2006).Another political influential factor is the Electoral cycle, where Health policies might be affected by the necessity to reelection. Thus, policy decisions are taken from this limited perception, and the Health policies are driven to create a short term noticeable benefits. Health care administrators all over the country should be playing an active role in enacting Health care reforms.
They are the right people to explain how to create more knowledgeable, flexible, and responsive delivery organizations, nevertheless, they know what is possible in terms of technology, devices, information technology, personnel; in addition to the current regulations in place. There are all sorts of operating and strategic decisions that weren’t talked about at a policy and national level. Yet, lots of remarkable experiments and attempts are in progress with professionals trying different ways of managing and improving services within the continuum of Health care. On that list, encouraging innovative ideas part of disease management and Health Promotion programs. Today’s health care reform efforts must re-establish public health infrastructure and prevention as priorities to transform our country from a "sick" care system to a “health” care system (Blumenthal, Skefos, Oppenheimer, and Clarke, 2009), giving extra attention not only on how to treat current diseases “one by one”, but on how to build a better function for the methods and approach followed to avoid sickness. All sectors concerned with the Health care reform - including, health care providers, foundations, the media, political actors and government must work together in
partnership.
.
References:
1) Leiyu Shi & Douglas A. Singh (2008). Delivering Health Care In America: A System Approach,4th Edition. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett
2) 2 Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). U. S. Health Care Delivery System, "Politics and Policy" (Dr. Jeffrey Levi, Dr. Mary Wakefield, Todd Linden) [Video webcast].
3) Kant Patel & Mark Rushefsky, 2006. “Health Care Politics And Policy in America”, 3rd Edition, by M.E. Sharpe, Inc., New york
4) Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D., Chrystan Skefos, Josh Oppenheimer, and Alissa Clarke, 2009. Putting Prevention into Practice in Health Care Reform,The Huffington Post. Retrieved on 16th, April, 2012 from : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-blumenthal/putting-prevention-into-p_b_239260.html
Health Policymaking in the United States involves a complex web of decisions and authorities made by many Health institutions and political actors across a wide range of Public and Private sectors. In the Public sector it may include federal, local, state governments, however; in the Private it consists of the Health care Providers, Health care professional and purchasers, all interacting at the policy cycle and in all of its stage, without having one party dominates one stage of that cycle.
Regarding the Legislative process, it usually starts with the Formulation (i.e. getting problems to the government and agenda setting), Implementation (i.e. this occurs inside public and federal programs, where ideas …show more content…
would be operating), and finally the modification or evaluation phase (Laureate, 2008). A number of features characterize the Legislative process in the U.S. Health care, including: Pluralistic and Interest group politics; where usually the Health policy outcomes and reforms take into full account the demands of these groups, Secondly; Government as Subsidiary to the Private sector, since the Health care is not considered as the primary responsibility of the government in addition to the escalated costs and the excessive regulations’ constraints accompanied with the government sector, accordingly ; this is affecting the government’s role in the health care delivery , giving the credit to the private sector over it. Third, the Impact of the presidential leadership and the congress role, as Americans are always looking to their presidents and their capabilities to positively change the Policies or legislations, in order to make it more compatible with the nation goals (Shi and Singh, 2008) , an example on this point is the reform that has been passing under President Obama, which is “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”, with its multiple determinations to improve the Health care.
The development of a consistent and highly comprehensive Health care might be difficult, especially when Health care policies are highly affected by the political system in the country. The approach that is followed by congress usually tends to solve persuasive problems at a time and not in the framework of the overall Health care policy, in addition, Congress often passes laws that are very general and unclear, giving the bureaucratic agencies a significant power to fill in the details of the law (Patel & Rushefsky, 2006).Another political influential factor is the Electoral cycle, where Health policies might be affected by the necessity to reelection. Thus, policy decisions are taken from this limited perception, and the Health policies are driven to create a short term noticeable benefits. Health care administrators all over the country should be playing an active role in enacting Health care reforms.
They are the right people to explain how to create more knowledgeable, flexible, and responsive delivery organizations, nevertheless, they know what is possible in terms of technology, devices, information technology, personnel; in addition to the current regulations in place. There are all sorts of operating and strategic decisions that weren’t talked about at a policy and national level. Yet, lots of remarkable experiments and attempts are in progress with professionals trying different ways of managing and improving services within the continuum of Health care. On that list, encouraging innovative ideas part of disease management and Health Promotion programs. Today’s health care reform efforts must re-establish public health infrastructure and prevention as priorities to transform our country from a "sick" care system to a “health” care system (Blumenthal, Skefos, Oppenheimer, and Clarke, 2009), giving extra attention not only on how to treat current diseases “one by one”, but on how to build a better function for the methods and approach followed to avoid sickness. All sectors concerned with the Health care reform - including, health care providers, foundations, the media, political actors and government must work together in
partnership.
.
References:
1) Leiyu Shi & Douglas A. Singh (2008). Delivering Health Care In America: A System Approach,4th Edition. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett
2) 2 Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). U. S. Health Care Delivery System, "Politics and Policy" (Dr. Jeffrey Levi, Dr. Mary Wakefield, Todd Linden) [Video webcast].
3) Kant Patel & Mark Rushefsky, 2006. “Health Care Politics And Policy in America”, 3rd Edition, by M.E. Sharpe, Inc., New york
4) Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D., Chrystan Skefos, Josh Oppenheimer, and Alissa Clarke, 2009. Putting Prevention into Practice in Health Care Reform,The Huffington Post. Retrieved on 16th, April, 2012 from : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-blumenthal/putting-prevention-into-p_b_239260.html