Health Care Policies Process

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