Health Policy Analysis Paper : Health Policies

In an effort to transform the public mental health system, in 1963, President Kennedy proposed the Community Mental Health Act. It was the first among several federal initiatives to create a community mental health care system. Once the act was ratified, there was an intense deterioration in institutionalization, otherwise known as “deinstitutionalization”, and by 1980 there was a 75% declined of the inpatient population at many public psychiatric hospitals. In 2000, there was less than 10% of the public institutionalized just fifty years earlier. In 2009, there was even a more dramatic shift among children and adolescence whereby there was a 98% decline in

This public health policy paper will discuss and outline the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as well as barriers and controversies surrounding the policy and its relevance in nursing profession. The ACA will eventually affect everyone. Statistics reflecting United States health outcomes have proven the need for the initiation of policy formation within the United States healthcare system. “In March 2010, President Obama signed into law a comprehensive health reform, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).” (Estes, Chapman, Dodd, Hollister, Harrington, 2013, p. 144) The ACA promotes preventive care—including related services and family planning—that should result in improved health outcomes and

Simultaneously, health and healthcare policy plays a tremendous role in the quality of life of every American. Likewise, by the government constantly interceding, health and healthcare is significantly influenced by the political climate and undertakings of administration; therefore creating a conflictual split between republicans and democrats. Health care is regarded as a product rather than a human right shaped by policymaking. Policies establish healthcare service stipulations, which are rooted in local, state, and federal statutes combined with landmark court decisions. Not only does policy focus on healthcare services; but, it also places a substantial emphasis on cost-efficiency and equality.

Because states needed Medicaid reimbursement from the federal government, they had no option but to transfer patients with mental diseases from state hospitals to nursing homes and community psychiatric facilities. It is these alternative

The shutdown of state mental hospitals and lack of available financial and institutional resources force mentally ill people to the United States Judicial System for mental health. Every year thousands of people are arrested for various crimes and they are sent to jail. Sixteen percent of these people have some type of mental health problem (Public Broadcasting System , 2001). When we consider that the United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world at 2.2 million, this number is staggering (Anasseril E. Daniel, 2007). This is about 1% of the entire population of the United States. There are many reasons as to why the situation has taken such a bad turn and when the history of the treatment of mental illness is examined one can see how the situation developed into the inhumane disaster it is today.

Today, it seems almost incomprehensible that so many people with serious mental illnesses reside in prisons instead of receiving treatment. Over a century and a half ago, reform advocates like Dorothea Dix campaigned for prison reform, urging lawmakers to house the mentally ill in hospitals rather than in prisons. The efforts undertaken by Dix and other like-minded reformers were successful: from around 1870 to 1970, most of the United States’ mentally ill population was housed in hospitals rather than in prisons. Considering reformers made great strides in improving this situation over a century and a half ago. Granted, mental hospitals in the late 19th and early 20th century were often badly run and critically flawed, but rather than pushing for reform of these hospitals, many politicians lobbied for them to close their doors, switching instead to a community-based system for treating the mentally ill. Although deinstitutionalization was originally understood as a humane way to offer more suitable services to the mentally ill in community-based settings, some politicians seized upon it as a way to save money by shutting down institutions without providing any meaningful treatment alternatives. This callousness has created a one-way road to prison for massive numbers of impaired individuals and the inhumane warehousing of thousands of mentally ill people. Nevertheless, there are things that can be done to lower the rate mentally ill persons are being incarcerated. Such

House Resolution (H.R.) 370 was introduced to Congress on January 9th, 2017 by Republican Rep. Bill Flores of Waco, Texas. The bill itself is quite simple, totaling two pages in length. The main purpose of the bill is repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA), completely restoring or reviving the laws it amended as if it had never existed. Unlike similar repeals to the ACA, this bill does not have a replacement plan or any sort of alternate plan. It simply takes the ACA away and restores the law to their pre-ACA state. This is concerning for many reasons, but it may also have some benefits as well. The future of America’s health care is ever changing and it is more important

The United States has never had an official federal-centered approach for mental health care facilities, entrusting its responsibility to the states throughout the history. The earliest initiatives in this field took place in the 18th century, when Virginia built its first asylum and Pennsylvania Hospital reserved its basement to house individuals with mental disorders (Sundararaman, 2009). During the 19th century, other services were built, but their overall lack of quality was alarming. Even then, researchers and professionals in the mental health field attempted to implement the principles of the so-called public health, focusing on prevention and early intervention, but the funds were in the hands of the local governments, which prevented significant advances in this direction.

This law endeavored to provide a national eligibility standard for Medicaid by mandating every state to provide basic health insurance coverage to 138 percent of the federal poverty line. By eliminating the strict eligibility barriers to receiving Medicaid coverage, Congress deviated completely from Medicaid’s initial intention of allowing states to choose to provide only certain groups of low-income individuals with health insurance with minimal federal intervention. Medicaid’s expansion created a clear partisan ideological divide and the Supreme Court ultimately deemed it unconstitutional for the federal government to violate individual state’s autonomy by coercing them to expand their Medicaid program with threats of losing federal funding. While the intention by Congress to provide all Americans with universal health care by was moral, they broke strong American ideals in the exact way they enacted it by demanding made this mandate of the Affordable Care Act immoral. There is no doubt that this Supreme Court ruling has created greater political uncertainty regarding the future of the Medicaid program. However, the tax-financed, Medicaid health insurance program has already succeeded greatly in the immense task of providing vital health

Effectively managing the health of a Nation is a major undertaking and requires a concerted effort on the part of its people. Governmental agencies use legislation and laws to help facilitate ethical care in the healthcare industry. Ethical care is determined by the philosophies and values of people within a specified population. The nursing field has set high standards in the way that its members treat the populations in their care. The competencies, values, and goals of the nursing profession have been standardized by The Quality Safety and Education for Nurses (QSEN) project (Ivey, 2013). These standards serve as a guide in providing evidenced-practice care that is patient-centered. QSEN standards also include teamwork, informatics,

In the reading I noted that The Institute of Medicine(IOM), found that patients were not satisfied with the quality of care that they received (Joel, 2013) I feel that the healthcare services for a patient should be that not only of a good quality but it should be cost effective, and make improvements for better outcomes with their overall health We have many organizations out there like NQF, NCQA, and TJC to help us with achieving this goal and maintaining a better quality of health with our patients and their needs.

Mr. Lamphier had great advice on ways the public can communicate with legislators and influence public health policy, which is also along the same guidelines for nursing. Know who your representatives are for the house, senate, county and school district level. Support a candidate either financially or through campaigning. Build relationships utilize the spring and summer months when the representatives are not in legislation to make contact and offer your nursing expertise. The bills that do not pass in the 40 days of the legislative period will need to start over and usually lobbying will start after the session ends. This is the time to find out how

Once a policy has been formulated, it can either be implemented or modified. Most health services are controlled by policies which require that before implementing any policy, the policy must be examined carefully. If the policy does not meet the required criteria, it is modified until it helps in solving a given problem. Sometimes, it is important to change health policies to make sure they are accomplishing what they are supposed to. Makers of these policies, as discussed in the earlier sections of the paper, maybe legislators, federal or state agencies, public or private funders, or service delivery organizations themselves. The health policies in question are those that ensure that citizens receive the best healthcare possible, are cost-effective,

The responsibility for health legislation and general policies rests with Parliament, the Secretary of State for Health, and the Department of Health (Department of Health, 2013a). Parliament is at the top of the chain, with the Department of Health and the Secretary State for Health following below that. Answering to the Secretary of State for Health is the NHS.

Health policy is a multidisciplinary fields of inquiry and practice concern with the delivery quality and cost of health care for individuals and populations. It also refers to decisions, plans, and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific health care goals within a society.