I. PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
An interesting question concerns the ethical obligations of people who do policy analysis research. Such research often involves ethical dilemmas that relate to:
1. Whether one's purposes should include prescription or evaluation, as well as prediction or explanation.
2. Whether or not to work to maximize the interests of a political party, special interest group, or only general societal interests.
3. Focusing on intended consequences versus all consequences.
4. Efficiency versus equity as policy goals.
5. Evaluation along versus evaluation plus diverse replication as an obligation. 6. Cost-incurring versus cost-saving in research.
7. Whether or not to share one's raw data.
8. Research validity
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2. Bringing up the bottom with regard to those who are least well off, as expounded by John Rawls.
3. Doing things that make everyone better off or at least no one worse off, as expounded by Vilfredo Pareto.
Benefits refer to whatever the society and/or its leaders consider desirable. Costs refer to whatever is considered undesirable. Benefits and costs can refer to monetary or nonmonetary effects. Benefits and costs are interchangeable concepts depending on how they are worded. Thus, high employment is a benefit, and high unemployment is a cost, but they are the complements or inverses of each other. It makes more sense to subtract
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costs from benefits in talking about overall goals than dividing costs by benefits. The subtraction criterion gives more of a net gain to one's original assets when one project is better on B-C, but another is better on B/C.
Other overall goals are also defective, such as (1) merely maximizing benefits without considering costs, (2) merely minimizing costs without considering missed benefits, (3) maximizing benefits subject to a maximum cost level, (4) minimizing costs subject to a minimum benefit level, or (5) maximizing change in benefits divided by change in costs. The fifth alternative is only a means to maximizing benefits minus costs. The third and fourth alternatives
The evaluation stage will help to discover any problems that have developed through the implementation process and changes in the policy by helping to solve any of the problems if necessary. Below is a picture that will show you and indicate the six processes of evaluation that will help identify the probability of the policy that
In a survey conducted in 2003, it highlighted that the recurrent problem is the reimbursement rate from Medicaid to the physician (O’Shea, 2007). The Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) show that 21% of physicians that state they accept Medicaid have reported they will not accept a new Medicaid patient in 2004-2005(O’Shea, 2007). This number would only logically be assumed to have risen in 2013 A survey conducted by the U.S. National Health reported that researchers have found two standout trends among Medicaid beneficiaries: they have more difficulty getting primary care and specialty care and they visit hospital emergency departments more often than those with private insurance (Seaberg, 2012). The lack of primary and specialty care access is mostly contributed to the following barriers; unable to reach the MD by phone, not having a timely appointment with the MD and lastly unable to find a specialty MD that will accept Medicaid. In a recent report released by the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, it stated that about 30% of Medicaid patients experience “extreme uncoordinated care”, there is a strong correlation between this situation and higher Medicaid spending and less quality of care given (Bush, 2012). After January 1st 2013, healthcare providers have experienced a 2% reduction in payments for Medicaid beneficiary, this will only create more of a problem for these patients to seek the
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
To ensure the data I find is suitable for the purpose of the research, I should agree guidelines for exactly what is needed and in what format with my manager or whoever set the task.
The concept of cost-benefit sounds simple enough but to apply it you have to decide how to measure relative costs and benefits which can become tricky. Different people may feel differently about the value of different things. A classic example is whether a not you should walk downtown to save $100 on a $500 dollar guitar. The benefit here is saving $100. The cost being the time it takes for you to walk downtown and what else you could be doing in that time. If you feel that your time is worth $100 than you make the trip downtown. If you feel your time is not worth a $100 then you do not make the trip. However if you decide to make the trip then you should make that same trip to save $100 even if you are buying a $3,000 painting. It is important to ignore proportions and focus on absolute dollar amounts.
In recent years our newspapers, televisions, and radios have been inundated with news stories about sexual offenders and sexual predators. Stories such as the kidnapping and murder of Polly Klass, Carlie Brucia, Amber Hagerman, and Jessica Lunsford have shocked the nation. Sex offenders and predators commit despicable acts; however, their acts seem more despicable when they are committed upon the most venerable members of our society, our children. Even with the new Jessica Lunsford legislation in Florida some citizens feel that it is not enough to keep their communities safe. Many cities are now looking at limiting the areas in which sex offenders and predators can live in hopes of protecting children. Many
Stubborn to the misconceptions dealing with human trafficking acts does not demand any movement or smuggling the individual. While illegal immigrants are uncommonly liable for coercion for the fear of authority, trafficking shows the power to take advantage of other unprotected populations and grabs offensively documented individuals working in the United States and America citizens. Indeed, unprotected minors are given away for commercial sex which does not need coercion, fraud, or proof of force. The government has victoriously tried human trafficking acts in strip clubs, bars, escorts
Marijuana legalization has been a controversial topic requiring a public policy solution in the political realm. There have been various arguments made for and against the legalization of marijuana. There are several states that have legalized marijuana use for medicinal purposes while others have let their guards down completely allowing citizens to use it not only medicinally, but recreationally as well. While the use of marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, there is much discussion by other states regarding policies to support marijuana legalization and many policy makers proactively planning for the possibility
In the last two decades, there have been countless debates on the need to reform the United States of American health care system. The reform is to enable a more comprehensive system that will address pressing issues such as the growing number of uninsured American. The USA is one of the leading countries when in to healthcare and its systems. It is also the country with the most spending when it comes to healthcare. According to an article published in the commonwealth fund, the United States health care system is found to be the most expensive in the world, but it also shows the U.S. underperforms relative to other countries on most dimensions of performance (Davis, Stremikis, Squires, & Schoen, 2014).
Congress has responded to the public outcry for action in the face of unacceptable suicide rates and has passed multiple pieces of legislation aimed at correcting the problem. The 2007 Joshua Omvig Bill directed the VA to develop “data systems to increase understanding of suicide among Veterans and inform both the VA and other suicide prevention programs” (Veterans Affairs, 2012, p. 7). In 2015, President Obama signed the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act into Law, requiring the VA to “make it easier for veterans to find mental health resources, do more to recruit and retain professionals” and to increase “accountability for the government programs serving them” (Baker, 2015, para. 2). This recent legislation tends to be
DC’s Mayor Muriel Bowser is calling upon us as a policy analysis team to evaluate the Homeward DC plan. This plan is a living document that is to be continually updated with informed and comprehensive analytical feedback to bridge the gaps within the strategic plan. Through the provision of our annual policy analysis Muriel Bowser is confident that resolving homelessness in the nation’s capital within the next four years is an achievable end.
Ideologies refer to a set of ideas and values that provides a base for organised political action. They justify and influence the different theories of society and human nature. Ideologies have a big impact on policy making, as the government of the day will base their policies around these political ideologies. The two major political parties in New Zealand, National and Labour, each have different beliefs and values which lead to different ideologies. Looking at both parties previous and current policies, we can observe the impact of the ideologies they have adopted on their policy making. The National party in the last 20 years has driven policies from a
Although there have been different interventions, policy programs and approaches to dementia, there still remain a significant amount of gaps in practices.
Educational policies are the rules, guidelines and or boundaries that have shaped my career as student, a teacher and most recently as an educational administrator. Throughout my career I have not questioned always questioned the reasons for the development of these policies. From the readings in this course, I have begun to examine the how and why of policy development and beginning to understand role the policy analysis has in the evaluation of educational policies over time. The role of the state, the role of the individual within the state, changes to political ideologies and the development of globalization have all directly impacted policy development and the directions that education has taken over the last century.
Everything you do is a choice. You choose the way you are living today. As we walk on the path of life, we are presented with cross roads and forks. Some are pretty obvious which turn we should take. However, not everything is easy in life. And in the fast pace life we are currently living in right now, we move so fast that we meet many more challenges than before and often, we hastily decide on the choices we make.