Unit IV focuses on the development of policymaking models. Using the domestic policy examples of health care and education, examine the framework of a policy process at the national level. Provide at least two references for your paper, ensuring that your textbook is one of the references used for this analysis.
Select a policy initiative that references the healthcare or education field at the national level.
Identify, describe, and provide a rationale for the chosen policy.
Provide relevancy and its effect on the chosen industry.
Describe any deviation from the current policy that would improve its effectiveness.
Distinguish how the national policy objectives affect local behavior and political viewpoints.
If your recommended changes are implemented, would there be ways to measure policy improvements?
Examine what level of oversight national government should provide to the chosen policy.
Your essay must be at least three pages in length, not including the title and reference pages. Be sure your paper is double-spaced and uses one-inch margins. Use your own words, and include citations and references as needed to avoid plagiarism. All sources used must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations and be cited per Help write my thesis – APA guidelines.
Affordable Care Act
In America, many public policies are formulated and implemented by both the state and federal governments to regulate resource allocations and fund the available national projects. These policies are formulated to address multifaceted problems facing humankind. They are then implemented to put laws into action. In America, the policies have been formulated to effect change in most critical sectors of the economy, such as education, criminal justice, health, and the environment (Dye, 2016). They vary based on their jurisdiction and functionality, which forms the basis of classification into domestic, national, and international policies (Uberoi, 2016). To accommodate emerging contemporary trends, these policies undergo constant reviews and ratifications.
According to Thomas he eludes on the different models of public policy formulation that is essential for political scientist to expound on politics in relation to public policies.it is an eye opener on the government’s public policies and reasons why the government pursues certain specific policies. Additionally, the consequences of the policies in the social and political realm. He further expounds on the models such as institutionalism, incrementalism, public theory, elite theory and the standard perspective considered in problem identification and setting of agendas for public policy evaluation (Dye, 2016). Healthcare is among the nation’s top 3 concerns following the emergence of various complexities and the need for disease control and eradication.The Department of Health and Human Services works tirelessly in overseeing and spearheading initiatives towards improving healthcare and medical research in America. The provision of affordable and quality healthcare is the ultimate goal of health policies. One of the policies championing this is the Affordable Care Act, one of the national policies enacted into law in 2010 (Griffith, 2017). The Act’s primary goal to ensure all the citizens received health care at an affordable cost. This is through, firstly, through the expanded access to insurance coverage. By expanding the access ensured that both Americas I private and public sectors were eligible for medical insurance. This has since transformed healthcare through the expansion of medical care to cover, which saw the expansion of Medicaid and increased in health insurance exchanges that allowed purchasing private insurance using tax credits. This has consequently decreased the number of uninsured Americans by 18.8%. (Blumenthal, 2015)
Secondly, the enactment of this Act has seen a decrease in mortality rates as more people can afford health care services, thus reducing the number of unnecessary deaths. Health care has become a priority for most states to their citizens, irrespective of their financial status. Additionally, a lot of employers have been mandated to cover their employees. Moreover, it has created temporary high-risk pools to help those that cannot afford to purchase insurance and people with preexisting health conditions (Hu, 2018). The Act has also emphasized prevention and wellness by the creation of public awareness on matters of health. Another significance of the ACA was the abolition of time limits on health care; thus, people with chronic health care conditions do not run out of insurance coverage despite surpassing the limits. While subsidizing healthcare costs, it has also improved health quality through comprehensive research on medical treatments while adopting health information technology.
The Act has faced many legal challenges whereby the Americas feel the law increased the complexity of health care with numerous political disputes surrounding its functionality. Its enactment has spurred a lot of debates from policymakers and politicians questioning the effectiveness of the policy. Despite the enactment of the law, many Americans remain uninsured, notably the people living in abject poverty and the ethnic monitory. According to national healthcare quality and disparities report, 15% are uninsured Americans is because financial constraints, thus, cannot afford to purchase health care insurance regardless of being a primary objective of the Affordable care Act (Blumenthal, 2015). Additionally, conservatives were highly objective of increasing taxes and increased insurance premiums required to access health care. Thus a lot of them have been for the overhaul of the Act as political and administrative changes occur.
Recommendations to improve the policy
The Affordable care Act is set to face a repeal as leaders poised to use their control to repeal part of the Act. However, a few recommendations can be made to enhance its effectiveness and functionality. Firstly, these include improving Medicaid eligibility to the reaming states that have not allowed for its expansion and the pollution for families with incomes of up to 138 % of the federal poverty levels also to be covered. Assist those in abject poverty by providing free or further subsidized costs of health care (Hu, 2018). Secondly, providing reasonable and manageable health insurance premiums and reducing b the burdens on taxes and mandates, especially the employers, to be negotiable to ensure that the people retain their jobs. Another recommendation is to review family dependency on the insurance covers by allowing the entire families to be enrolled in the affordable care market place to relieve a lot of families from tax burdens. The implementation of these recommendations will improve the policy’s performance for the benefit of the American people.
Conclusion
Healthcare is a very imperative sector of the economic policies that are enacted to create, implement and regulate the healthcare system. With the dynamics of diseases and pandemics, these policies have to be enacted to address health insurance coverage, preventive care and subsidizing healthcare to make it affordable and quality. The Affordable Care Act was enacted to cater to health care disparities through subsidies, and extensive access health cover from employers to their workers while increasing tax credits on smaller businesses to afford and access health care services.
References
Blumenthal, D., Abrams, M., & Nuzum, R. (2015). The affordable care act at five years.
Sommers, B. D., Gunja, M. Z., Finegold, K., & Musco, T. (2015). Changes in self-reported insurance coverage, access to care, and health under the Affordable Care Act. Jama, 314(4), 366-374.
Griffith, K., Evans, L., & Born, J. (2017). The Affordable Care Act reduced socioeconomic disparities in health care access. Health Affairs, 36(8), 1503-1510.
Hu, L., Kaestner, R., Mazumder, B., Miller, S., & Wong, A. (2018). The effect of the affordable care act Medicaid expansions on financial wellbeing. Journal of public economics, 163, 99-112.
Uberoi, N., Finegold, K., & Gee, E. (2016). Health insurance coverage and the Affordable Care Act, 2010-2016. Washington (DC): Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.
Dye, T. R., & Dye, T. R. (2016). Understanding public policy.15th edition Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
