Regulation & Policy in Healthcare Project 1
Uninsured Americans
Over the next few weeks, you will explore many of the critical components of the United States healthcare system and elements that can be improved with appropriate healthcare policy. One of the most important pieces of legislation impacting healthcare is the ACA, which “provides Medicaid coverage to many low-income individuals in states that expand and Marketplace subsidies for individuals below 400% of the poverty line” (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2017, para. 1). But, while the ACA has reduced the number of uninsured Americans, there are still millions without coverage. The question is why and what can be done to address the underlying issues.
Task: Please review the following resources and using specific information from these resources, your course resources, and additional research, address the tasks posed below:
Kaiser Family Foundation. (2017, September 19). Key facts about the uninsured population. Retrieved from https://www.kff.org/uninsured/fact-sheet/key-facts-about-the-uninsured-population/
Krueger, A. B., & Kuziemko, I. (2013). The demand for health insurance among uninsured Americans: Results of a survey experiment and implications for policy. Journal of health economics, 32(5), 780–793. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w16978.pdf
Tasks: Include answers to ALL*** the following questions:
Summarize the population (number, demographics, etc.) of uninsured people in the U.S.
Discuss some of the reasons for and possible financial consequences of not having health insurance.
Discuss the socioeconomic consequences of having a large uninsured population in the U.S.
Describe the changes that will occur to assist the uninsured population with the Patient Protection and ACA.
Note: Your answers should stay within the context of the reading material provided bellow
Submission Details:
Present your response in a 3-page Microsoft Word document formatted in APA style.
As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.
On a separate page, cite all sources using APA format.
Reference:
Kaiser Family Foundation. (2017, September 19). Key facts about the uninsured population. Retrieved from https://www.kff.org/uninsured/fact-sheet/key-facts-about-the-uninsured-population/
Reading material related to the assignment topic
Determinants of Health
Current definitions of health emphasize that health is more than the absence of disease. Health is a state of wellness that hinges on proper function in a variety of dimensions. For example, good health is achieved only when there is a balance between health determinants: personal, social, economic, and environmental. These various factors that impact wellness must be addressed at multiple levels—individual, community, national, international—to ensure population level health. Blum pioneered a “force field” paradigm that posits that population health is directly impacted by four forces: environment, lifestyle, hereditary, and medical care. Dahlgren and Whitehead grouped the determinants of health into fixed factors, such as age and gender; and modifiable factors, such as behavior and access to products.
The most important movement to date is Healthy People 2020. This initiative aims to address questions about what makes some individuals healthy in comparison to others as well as how we can create a healthy society where there is an equal opportunity to be healthy. It is a national agenda to promote health groups, the determinants of health, into the following categories: biology and genetics, individual behavior, health services, social factors, and policy making. The interplay between these different factors is what determines our health at the individual and population levels. Throughout this course, we will focus on policy making at the local, state, and federal levels as well as the impact of policies on individual and population level health.
The Determinants of Health:
Biology and Genetics
Individual Behavior
Health Services
Social Factors
Policy Making
Health Policy Making
Policies can be created in the private sector (for organizations and industries) or in the public sector (governmental) to guide decision-making processes. While both types of policies, private and public, can certainly impact health status, the focus of this course will be on public policy. Public policy is defined as the government activities that influence citizen lives. This includes the law, regulation, orders, decisions, etc. made by political leaders to promote social welfare. All three branches of our government are involved in making policies; the legislative branch is responsible for formulating appropriate public policies, the executive branch works to implement them, and the judicial branch interprets policy decisions if clarification or revision is needed.
Health policies are the public policies that specifically influence or impact health. There is a great deal of contention involved in the development of health policy as there are differing opinions on whether health should be viewed as a right or a privilege. But, while visions of a quality healthcare system are numerous, many can agree that healthcare requires access and affordability, as well as information exchange, which are important factors for consideration. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) proposes an improved healthcare policy; however, implementation and enforcement of such a policy are proving difficult. Only time will tell if this “grand experiment” is successful.
The Process of Health Policy Making
Identify,Formulate,Adopt,Implement,Evaluate
Regulatory vs. Allocative Health Policies
Regardless of their form, policies may be categorized as allocative or regulatory in nature. Allocative policies typically provide net benefits to a certain distinct group of actors at the expense of others in order to meet public objectives. For example, medical education is heavily subsidized by the government in order to prevent undersupply of physicians. Regulatory policies are designed to influence action, behaviors, and decisions of actors within a sector. Regulatory health policies include market-entry restrictions, rate or price setting controls on health service providers, quality controls on the provision of health services, market-preserving controls, and social regulation. The role of the federal government of the United States in health policy making is similar to any other policy making approach. The executive branch, under the president of the United States, implements and enforces laws written by the Congress.