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health care policy formation
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Health care policies are plans that intended to determine or influence decisions or actions that will help to achieve specific health care goals. Most of these policies are actions taken by the government to improve the American health care system. The purpose of this essay is to describe the process of how a topic eventually becomes a policy and tie to how the Affordable Health Care Act (ACA) policy process. This essay will include the formulation stage, legislative stage, and implementation stage of a complete policy process.
Health Care Policy
Health care policy targets the organization, financing, and delivery of health care services. The reason for targeting these areas is for the licensing of health care professionals and facilities, to make sure there is protection of patients’ private health information, and there are measures of quality care, mistakes, malpractice, and efforts to control of health care cost (Acuff, 2010). There are several stages that one must take when creating a policy (see figure 1). The figure below shows the critical steps in the policy process. First, the problem must be identified, once the problem is identified potential policy solutions must be formulated, then the policy is adopted, and then implemented. After the policy is in place, an evaluation of the policy has to take place (This Nation, 2013).
Figure 1. Critical stages in the policy process
Source: The Public Policy Process, This Nation.
Identifying the Problem
Many problems exists, but for an issue to make it in public policy agenda it has to be a salient issue meaning it has to be an issue that stands out and encountered by a large interest group (Boundless, 2013). An example to this is the ACA, starting 2014 ACA will provide health care coverage to everyone, reduce health costs, and improve quality health. The large interest group in this situation is the millions of Americans.
Formulation Stage
Formulation is the second stage after identifying the problem and setting the agenda. This stage involves the proposal of solutions to the issue. The policy makers propose several courses of actions and solutions to addressing the issue. Then come up with one effective solution that will solve most of the issues (Boundless, 2013).
The purpose of ACA implementation is because many people are uninsured due of various reasons, some of the reasons are financial hardship, pre-existing conditions, and work status. The most effective solution to these issues was to formulate
Healthcare in the U.S. has recently been affected by implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010. The intent is to create a healthca...
The Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare” was designed to assure that all Americans regardless of health status have access to affordable health insurance. The Affordable Car Act was signed into law March 23, 2010. The primary goal of this act was to decrease barriers for obtaining health care coverage and allow Americans to access needed health care services (Affordable Care Act Summary, n.d). After the legislation is fully implemented in 2014, all Americans will be required to have health insurance through their employer, a public program such as Medicaid and/or Medicare or by purchasing insurance through the health insurance marketplace exchange (Affordable Care Act Summary, n.d). I will identify three parts of The Affordable Care Act that I believe are important. First, I will talk about the requirement that insurance companies are no longer able to deny coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions. Secondly, I will explain why physician payments are being shifted to value over volume. Lastly, I will discuss Medicaid expansion and why some states are not expanding at all.
One of the most controversial topics in the United States in recent years has been the route which should be undertaken in overhauling the healthcare system for the millions of Americans who are currently uninsured. It is important to note that the goal of the Affordable Care Act is to make healthcare affordable; it provides low-cost, government-subsidized insurance options through the State Health Insurance Marketplace (Amadeo 1). Our current president, Barack Obama, made it one of his goals to bring healthcare to all Americans through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. This plan, which has been termed “Obamacare”, has come under scrutiny from many Americans, but has also received a large amount of support in turn for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons include a decrease in insurance discrimination on the basis of health or gender and affordable healthcare coverage for the millions of uninsured. The opposition to this act has cited increased costs and debt accumulation, a reduction in employer healthcare coverage options, as well as a penalization of those already using private healthcare insurance.
Healthcare has been a topic of discussion with the majority of the country. Issues with insurance coverage, rising costs, limited options to gain coverage, and the quality of healthcare have become concerns for law makers, healthcare providers and the general public. Some of those concerns were alleviated with the passing of the Affordable Care Act, but new concerns have developed with problems that have occurred in the implementation of the new law. The main concerns of the country are if the Affordable Care Act will be able to overcome the issues that plagued the old healthcare system, the cost of the program, and how will the new law affect the quality of the health delivery system.
Longest Jr., B.B (2009) Health Policy making in the United States (5th Edition). Chicago, IL: HAP/AUPHA.
What is this specific policy or general policy area to be analyzed? Warne, D. (2007) states that there are many injustices within the “system” ,but Health Care Policy; which determines who gets health services, what those services are and how those services are delivered and Education Policy which determines who gets educational programs, what those programs are and how those programs are administered are among the highest needed policies that need attending to.
Governing bodies for the prevention, treatment, and management of illnesses in America are now in a commotion because of the cost of care and patient access and the need for a more efficient system. There are approximately 50 or more million people currently in The United States that are without insurance today. In March of 2010 a country wide health care charge called The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed, that seemed to offer solutions to some of the major issues facing our health care system. June of 2012, this new health care law or tax was challenged in the U. S. Supreme Court on the Constitutionality of the bill with proponents wanted the Act repealed. A few weeks later the Supreme Court gave its answer, which was the law or tax is Constitutional and upheld it as tax. One of the biggest issues to this Act was the part where all Americans have to be insured by someone or be penalized, but the final analysis of this...
Since the initiation of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, Americans have been put back in charge of their individual health care. Under this new law, a health insurance marketplace provides a haven for individuals without insurance to gain coverage. Just this year, citizens found out early whether they qualified for Medicare or the CHIP formally known as the Children’s Health Insurance Program. So much is to be learned about the Affordable Care act and this paper provides the roles of the different governmental branches, along with other important factors associated with this law.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a federal that was signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010 to systematically improve, reform, and structure the healthcare system. The ACA’s ultimate goal is to promote the health outcomes of an individual by reducing costs. Previously known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the ACA was established in order to increase the superiority, accessibility, and affordability of health insurance. President Obama has indicated the ACA is fully paid for and by staying under the original $900 billion dollar budget; it will be able to provide around 94% of Americans with coverage. In addition, the ACA has implemented that implemented that insurance companies can no longer deny c...
The aim of affordable care act (ACA) was to extend health insurance coverage to around 15% of US population who lack it. These include people with no coverage from their employers and don’t have coverage by US health programs like Medicaid (Retrieved from, https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/affordable-care-act/). To achieve this, the law required all Americans to have health insurance which is a reason of controversy because, it was inappropriate intrusion of government into the massive health care industry and insult to personal liberty. To make health care more affordable subsidies are offered and the cost of the insurance was supposed to be reduced by bringing younger, healthier people to the health insurance system. This could be controversial, if older, sicker people who need the coverage most enter the market but younger group decline to do so. The insurance pool will be unbalanced and the cost of coverage will rise correspondingly.
Pardis, M., Wood, J., & Cramer, M. (2009, September-October). A policy analysis of health care . Nursing economic$ the journal for health care leaders, 27(no 5 2009 r). Retrieved from http://www.nursingeconomics.net/cgi-bin/WebObjects?NECJournal.woa/wa/viewSection?s_id=1073744460.
The main purpose of health care policies, like geographic maps, is to provide routes and directions to best achieve specific goals. Their design involves many variables and go through many steps that often begins with a problem that needs to be solved or addressed. To demonstrate such concept, this paper discusses the steps taken to adopt a new health policy in North Carolina; the main goal of the new policy is to implement Evidence-Based Practice (EVP) in mental health care and to redirect the service to its target population. The paper highlights the role of management, implementers, stakeholders, and professionals in the initiation and implementation steps of health policies.
As I’m coming to the twilight of my undergraduate degree at Charter Oak Stat College, I’ve chosen to write about the Affordable care act so I can better understand the reality of today’s healthcare system from the facilities, providers and patients point of view. I feel understanding this information will help me create an environment that can adapt and accelerate through the transition due to the affordable healthcare act’s broad impact on healthcare as it was once known and practiced. I feel whether I move forward as a nurse, provider or administrator, this information will be invaluable.
Agenda setting is the process that determines appropriate solutions to a certain problem of a given field (Kingdon, 3). The process itself consists of three streams: problems, policies, and politics (Kingdon, 16). These separate streams interact when windows of opportunity are open – solutions are fitted with problems, and the impetus for this relationship is amenable political forces (Kingdon, 20). Prominent agendas are determined by the problem or political streams, while solutions are crafted in in the policy stream (Kingdon, 20). In the field of health care, the agenda setting is based upon the high number of uninsured citizens, the rising cost of medical care, the development of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in response to this issue, and the key players that debate whether governmental involvement is the correct approach in the issue of universal healthcare.
Sung (2004) summarized the model can be divided into a three-stage process: the stakeholder stage, public stage, and issues stage. The first stage focuses on building and maintaining a good relationship between an organization and stakeholders, and followed by identifying and segmenting the public in managing conflicts at public stage. The last stage emphasizes the importance of issue management including the anticipation of issue and the response to issues from organizational perspective.