FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON UNIVERSITY
Henry P. Becton School of Nursing and Allied Health
MEDT4301
Prof. Marilyn R. Rubin
Fall 2016
Unit 13 – Health Policy
Reading Assignment
Chapter 13
Individual Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this unit, the student will be able to:
Define health policy and explore its principal features in the U.S.
Describe the development of legislative policy and give examples of critical health policy issues
Provide an outlook for the future of U.S. health policy
Unit 13 – Assignments
Assignment 1
What are the principal features of US heath policy? Why do these features characterize US health policy?
Various features illustrate The United Sates Health Policy and these entail;
government as a subsidiary to the private sectors.
fragmented, incremental, and piecemeal reforms.
pluralistic also known as interest politics.
The decentralized function of the government.
The effect of presidential leadership.
These features normally have influence on the evolution and development of health policies.
Assignment 2
Identify 7 health care interest groups and briefly discuss the concerns of each group.
Federal and state governments
This is concerned with cots containment, regulates access to health care and also monitors and improves the quality of care received by the patients. It is the state government that acts as the regulator.
Employers
The employers do not have great regulations on the healthcare related functions. They are responsible for containing the cost, ensuring there is workplace safety and employees are in good state of health.
Consumers
The consumers are the final people that get healthcare services. They have access to healthcare, pays for the services and also concerned about the qualities.
Insurers
The insurers are responsible for ensuring that everyone gets quality healthcare. It also ensures that consumers get services at any time.
Practitioners
Maintains income, they are also professional autonomy and malpractices reforms.
Provider organizations
They are responsible for administrative simplification, profitability and reducing the bad debts.
Technology producers
Funds the research, regulates the environment and also tax treatment.
Assignment 3
What is the process of legislative health policy in the United States? How is this process related to the principal features of U.S. health policy?
The process of enacting a health care policy in the United States is a complex process that entails public and private sections (including various government levels). To form and implement a healthcare policy is comprised of five components;
Issue raising
This is enacting of new policy and proceeded by various actions that create a sense that there is an issue and the issues needs be addressed. The president may form policy concepts from different sources including campaigns, recommendations from advisers and cabinet members among others.
Policy design
The president has substantial resources to design new policies. They may get assistance from different government branches.
Building of public support
In this segment, the president can select from different strategies including major address to the public, and efforts to mobilize their administrations to make public appeals, and organized attempts to increase support among interest groups.
Legislative decision making and building of policy support
To facilitate decision making and the building of policy support, presidents, key staff a departmental official usually interact with congress.
Legislative decision making and Implementation of policy
Once al the processes and laws have been followed, the new policy is implemented.
Assignment 4
Briefly describe and discuss the critical policy issues related to access of care, cost of care, and quality of care.
Legislative efforts have been specific to issues in access (expanding insurance cover, outreaching programs in rural areas), cost containment (PPS, relative value scales), and quality (creating the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research and calling for clinical practice guidelines.
Assignment 5
Please read The New York Times article: “Limits Placed on Immigrants in Health Care Law” by Robert Pear, September 17, 2012.
Please post your comments on this article.
I would like clarify that the free Medicare services as enacted by the Obama care might be hurting the economy by digging deep into its pockets. The limited resources make the government to exclude others(Immigrants) so to sustain it. However, quality and justice should be observed in any enactment. The USA law fights for the right of all citizens regardless of original and I believe that the outdated, unfair laws should be amended.
The amendment will ensure that all who live I the United States legally will have equal access and rights to health care.
Assignment 6
Please read The New York Times article “Slippery-Slope Logic, Applied to Health Care” by Richard H. Thaler, May 12, 2012.
Please post your comments on this article.
The community is evolving slowly and the changes are having effects on the decisions that were formerly made. There is also so much unpredictability on the changes that at times the actions previously taken ends in regrets. However, this should not thwart any actions that need to be taken or laws to be enacted. There should be more of the evidence than ‘its risky’ argument. No road has been safe even in other sectors and amendments have been in place to taken care of the loopholes that might be created in such instances it fails.
I believe that the community has to be on the move with evidence and enact new laws it believes will have better effects.
Assignment 7 – Terminology
Allocative tools
Designates a use of health policy whereby there is a direct provision of income, services, or goods to groups of people who normally gain from benefits in receiving such.
Distributive policies
Spreads benefits through the community. For instance, funding medical research through the NIH, training medical personnel, constructing health facilities and initiating new institutions.
Public policies
These are the authoritative and binding decisions enacted in the legislative, executive and or judicial government branches. The aim of such policies is to direct or influence the actions, characters, or decisions of others.
Redistributive policies
The action of taking power or money from one group and giving or assigning it to another. Examples are Medicaid programs, where taxes revenue and uses it to finance the poor in form of health insurance.
Regulatory tools
Designate a use of health policy whereby the government prescribes and regulates the characters of given target group by monitoring the group and posing sanctions suppose the group fails to comply to the regulations.
