Public Health Policy And The Care Crisis

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This saying goes to show that investing in preventative care is the only way to effectively reform health care plans in America. It is no secret that there are many issues facing health care; however, the most important issue seems to be the lack of funding for preventative care. Redistributing health care related funds into areas like public health and preventative medicine can increase the overall quality of life for patients. If health care reform revolves around preventative medicine, then America’s standard of health will rise. A healthier society will lessen the demand for expensive life-saving surgeries, thus decreasing the overall cost of health care. The overall solution for this issue would be to set a realistic health care budget that correlates to the United States’ current standard of health, thus majority of the budget focuses on preventative medicine.

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.

Health care spending in the United States of America as a percentage of the economy has reached astonishing heights, equating to 17.7 percent. This number is shocking when compared to other counties; in Australia health care is 8.9 percent, in United Kingdom 9.4 percent, in Canada 11.2 percent. If the American health care system were to hypothetically become its own economy, it would be the fifth-largest in the world. While these statistics sound troubling, they lead us to look for answers about the problems surrounding our system. The first health insurance company was created in the 1930s to give all American families an equal opportunity for hospital care and eventually led to a nationwide economic and social controversy that erupted in the 1990s and continued to be shaped by the government, insurance companies, doctors, and American citizens. In this paper, I will go in to detail about the various opinions regarding the controversy, the history behind health insurance companies, and the main dilemmas brought out by the health care crisis. Greedy insurance companies combined with high costs of doctor visits and pharmaceutical drugs or the inefficient hospitals all over America can only describe the beginning to this in depth crisis. Recently, the United States health care industry has become know for the outrageous costs of insurance models, developments of various social and health services programs, and the frequent changes in medicinal technology.

Patient access to affordable health care is an ongoing issue in the United States. The first portion of the policy process involves three different stages, the formulation stage, legislative stage, and the implementation stage. Three main stages exist in the process to transform a topic into a policy (Morone, J. A., Litman, T. J., & Robins, L.S., 2008). Coupled with the implementation stage is an evaluation of all the stages to determine effectiveness and gather information for use in future public health care policy making. In the formulation stage, the ideas, concepts, and information steam from this process of policy making. The

In order to first start a policy process, the problem for which a policy is to be created must be identified and the policy holding a solution to the problem. Researchers and stakeholders will investigate the problem to identify if the policy will reach the policy making agenda. Policies must be to improve society’s health and wellbeing. In the United States (U.S.) public health related issues that require a formulation of a new policy and come from local, state, or federal legislations which ruling govern the provision of health care services and regulations. In this

(2001). The Formulation of Health Policy by the Three Branches of Government. Social Policy and Policymaking by the Branches of Government and the Public-at-Large. doi:10.7312/stei11682-014

Governmental agencies influence health policies by influencing the Federal government, State government, and local laws by using population health research studies and interventions studies reported of health disparities. In addition to being well informed with health disparities they have access to investing, research and collecting evidence in assisting them to gather information that can influence health care polices. With each research that is conducted can possibly create new or old policies to be improved and aimed to reduce health disparities.

The health of the American people lags behind those from other developed countries. Federal public health agencies have a wide range of responsibilities and functions which includes public health research, funding, and oversight of direct healthcare providers. It has been a long time since changes have been made to the way the federal government structures its health care roles and programs outside of Medicare and Medicaid (Trust, 2013). With healthcare reform on the horizon now is the time to invest time and money in prevention, not medicine, making it a top priority to improve health and prevent disease. Funding efforts at all levels of the public health continuum need to focus on developing programs aimed at such leading initiatives

Health care in America is a continuous fight and has become a daily hot topic with every news outlet. Even politicians use it to secure their role in congress. Sadly, as a powerful force of a nation the United States (U.S.) plays against and for other nations, the American people’s health care system is broken at the moment. There is continuous chatter about making improvement but nothing is being done to correct it. American public health is in a desperate state and a cry for help because as a nation the American public health is at it’s lowest. Issues need to be corrected and mandates need to be made with Affordable Care Act (ACA), in-order for improvements to be made with the current American's public health system.

Two of the most important things to know about the evolution of U.S. health policy is that is has evolved in a specific manner based on U.S. historical context and that it is often times made ineffective and fractured due to the political process. The historical context of America’s founding and its value systems should not be ignored when attempting to address the development of health policy in our country (Stevens, Rosenberg, & Burns, 2006). One of the first health “laws” in the U.S. was declared in 1610 in the Virginia Colony of Jamestown (Tarter, 2012). The larger portion of the declaration order by Sir Thomas Dale focused on strict governance of the colony. One small portion of the declaration focused on sanitation and strictly forbid certain acts such as laundering soiled clothing, cleaning cooking supplies, and defecating/voiding within a specified number of feet of water sources or public spaces. It appears from the very beginnings of what would become our nation, the government’s role in health care was primarily focused on the sanitation portion of public health. However, there were early legislative examples of Congress passing laws that mandated a type of health insurance or coverage by those who worked in the maritime industries (Ungar, 2011). The legislation titled “An act for the relief of sick and disable seamen” required that those working in this specific industry pay 1% of their earnings to the federal government, and the government utilized this tax to

The health care, policy-making process is composed of three major stages; the formulation stage, legislative stage, and the implementation stage. The policy process refers to the specific decisions and events that are required for a policy to be proposed, considered, and finally either implemented and/or set aside. It is an interactive process with multiple points of access providing opportunities to influence the multiple decision makers involved at each stage (Abood, 2007). Each stage presents a unique set of events for a policy to be proposed, considered, and either implemented or rejected. In the formulation stage there is

The authors of this chapter are John Billings, Joel C. Cantor, and Chelsea Clinton. John Billings holds a JD (Juris Doctor) or law degree. At the time of the publication John Billings was an associate professor of health policy and public service at New York University. He taught in the area of health policy

Estes, C. L., Chapman, S. Dodd, C. Hollister, B., & Harrington, C. (2013). Health policy: Crisis

Good post this week. According to the CDC, effective policies and distribution related to health and its resources can significantly develop community health. There are necessities to recognize some aspects of support raise effective policies and terminate poor ones, such as generate proper metrics, which is covering policy that can impact on large populations, intervention approaches within organizations, and individual-level behavioral methodologies for prevention or disease management. They suggest some recommendations for Policy-Related Metrics. A few struggles are under way to mature public health policy surveillance systems (CDC, 2012).

Interest group roots fall back on the constitution and the birth of the American version of democracy