The government’s responsibilities concerning health care has grown over the last 100 years. After the Great Depression, Social Security was formed; and in the 1960s, Medicare and Medicaid were enacted. Federal responsibilities grew until the “New Federalism” of the 1990s increased reliance on the states for health care (Longest, 2010, pp. 30-33). Smaller, more local government can represent its citizen’s values better, and it knows the nature of its citizens’ problems. The New Federalism did not significantly change health policy; it gave the states more authority in setting policy and more flexibility in administering programs (Longest, 2010, pp. 30-33). States and localities became the primary authorities in regard to health and welfare benefits. While the states welcome the increase in policy flexibility, the rising costs of healthcare and welfare put constraints on state budgets. As a result, states and localities are being forced to become more creative. Although Medicaid continues to place an enormous fiscal burden on states, programs like Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) have proven to be successful in terms of appropriately expanding benefits while reducing caseloads (Longest, 2010, pp. 30-33). States continue to serve as the primary distributors of social service benefits, but decreasing federal support, uncertain state economies, and the increasing need to provide long-term care to healthcare recipients are placing overwhelming burdens on states to maintain and expand existing programs. The role of the states in protecting and promoting the health of the population is broad and complex, but can be described within six broad functions: (1) guardians of the public’s health, (2) purchasers of healthcare servi... ... middle of paper ... ...s that relies on data from assessment and monitoring activities, surveys and reporting systems, and projection techniques. Then, this data must be transformed into meaningful information to support effective policy decisions (Longest, 2010, pp. 29-57). Health policies should bridge the gaps between the current situation and desired outcomes without the financial influence of lobbyists. References Indiana State Department of Health. (n.d.). Retrieved August 20, 2011, from http://www.in.gov/isdh/ Longest, B. B., Jr. (2010). The context and process of health policymaking. In T. D. McBride (Ed.), Health policy making in the United States (5th ed., pp. 30-33). Chicago, IL: Health Adminstration Press. Maurer, F., & Smith, C. (2005). Community/public health nursing practice: Health for families and populations (3rd ed.). Retrieved from http://books.google.com
Strasser, Judith A., Shirley Damrosch, and Jacquelyn Gaines. Journal of Community Health Nursing. 2. 8. Taylor & Francis, Ltd., 1991. 65-73. Print.
The commonwealth of Massachusetts’ compulsory health care system does make health care mandatory for all its inhabitants, but it cannot provide prima...
Longest Jr., B.B (2009) Health Policy making in the United States (5th Edition). Chicago, IL: HAP/AUPHA.
Wright, L. M., & Leahey, M. (2013). Nurses and families: A guide to family assessment and intervention (6th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F. A. Davis
Niles, N. J. (2011). Basics of the U.S. health care system. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
The author also believes that the Medicaid expansion extends beyond the politics, and has an aim to impact the life, health, and financial stability for the state and individuals. Medicaid expansion can be beneficial to many countries that have a large proportion of low-income people that are uninsured and or with disabilities. This can aid in saving the state money because much of the cost is provided and covered by the federal government, that encourages healthier behavior and results to a reduction in chronic disease due to lower health care costs. Although Texas opted out in adopting the expansion, legislators should decide on the advantage and disadvantage of participating in the Medicaid expansion to improve the welfare of the state. The expansion of Medicaid coverage will give low-income pregnant women the chance to reduce the rate in infant mortality and provide an opportunity for those that were unable to get coverage to be
Evans, B. A., Snooks, H., Howson, H., & Davies, M. (2013). How hard can it be to include research evidence and evaluation in local health policy implementation? Results from a mixed methods study. Implementation Science, 8(1), 1-9.
Medicaid is a broken system that is largely failing to serve its beneficiary’s needs. Despite its chronic failures to deliver quality health care, Medicaid is seemingly running up a gigantic tab for tax payers (Frogue, 2003). Medicaid’s budget woes are secondary to its insignificant structure, leaving its beneficiaries with limited choices, when arranging for their own health care. Instead, regulations are set in order to drive costs down; instead of allowing Medicaid beneficiaries free rein to choose whom they will seek care from (Frogue, 2003)
The state is responsible for the overall regulatory, supervisory and fiscal functions as well as for quality monitoring and planning of the distribution of medical specialties at the hospital level (Schäfer et al., 2010). The 5 regions are responsible for hospitals and for self-employed health care professionals, whereas the municipalities are responsible for disease prevention and health promotion rel...
A community can be defined as a group of people, who live, learn, work and play in an environment at a given time. (Yiu, 2012, p.213) There are many factors that may influence the community’s development and health status. These can include resources available, accessibility, transportation, safety, community needs etc… These influences may combine together to form community strengths and as well as community challenges or weaknesses. As a community health care nurse, it is significant for us to assess and identify these strengths and challenges within the community in order for us to intervene and provide the appropriate needed health care services for the community members. This individual scholarly paper will explore and focus on one challenge issue identified from our group community assessment.
What Seems To Be The Problem? A discussion of the current problems in the U.S. healthcare system.
Kaakinen, J. R., Gedaly-Duff, V., Coehlo, D. P., & Harmon Hanson, S. M. (2010). Family Health Care Nursing: Theory, Practice and Research. (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis .
For example, States like Illinois, Texas or Michigan have a high percentage of pregnancy-related deaths, high infant mortality rate and most preventable hospitals deaths. As a result, they have a common denominator which is that a big portion of their population aren’t insured. In States like the ones previously mentioned, numerous citizens are not eligible to have insurance from the government and don’t have the economic resources to rely on the private sector. Consequently, not having Medicaid or private insurance leads to purveyor inequality among citizens. This outcome is related partly to the distribution criteria of the Medicaid program and the policies that the state government establishes. For example, a person who is not able to get Medicaid in Texas, can be eligible in California to get the same policy benefits. This variation structure and design clearly explains the extent of how the health policy in the U.S. is
Harkness, G. A. & Demarco, R. (2012). Community and public health nursing. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Health care policy targets the organization, financing, and delivery of health care services. The reason for targeting these areas is for the licensing of health care professionals and facilities, to make sure there is protection of patients’ private health information, and there are measures of quality care, mistakes, malpractice, and efforts to control of health care cost (Acuff, 2010). There are several stages that one must take when creating a policy (see figure 1). The figure below shows the critical steps in the policy process. First, the problem must be identified, once the problem is identified potential policy solutions must be formulated, then the policy is adopted, and then implemented. After the policy is in place, an evaluation of the policy has to take place (This Nation, 2013).