Health Policy Assessment PowerPoint and Transcript

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Financial Implicationson Adult Immunizations

Veronica Horne

Southern New Hampshire University

IHP 610

November 28, 2021

Financial Implications

There are several health policies in the United States of America. One of these policy issues is adult immunization, where an individual within the united states government has the right to decide whether they can be vaccinated. Although these policy issues protect the rights of the American people, there have several impacts on society, especially the stakeholders. These implications can be either financial or non-financial. Financial implications are implications that are those that are related to money. Adult immunization has several financial implications for various stakeholders; therefore, it is important to analyze the financial needs of the stakeholders and how it impacts financial practices in healthcare.

Stakeholder Needs

The key stakeholders affected by the mandatory immunization policy are government officials, underserved populations, and human rights groups. The first key stakeholders are government officials who make these policy decisions to implement mandatory vaccination policies. One of the financial needs they need to implement these policies successfully is financed to fund nationwide vaccination. These government officials have to find funding that will be needed while ensuring that the expenses do not come at the expense of other essential health or social services. They can get the funding from domestic revenue and alternative financing sources such as immunization trust funds or social impact bonds. The second group of stakeholders is human rights groups who can also be affected financially. These human rights groups will also need finances for their legal battles against mandatory vaccinations. If they decide to go to the courts to protect the rights of persons, they have to pay legal fees and court fees when protecting the rights of people to choose if they want to be vaccinated or not. They will also need funds for their public campaign against mandatory vaccinations. Underserved communities are individuals who come from a minority population who have to deal with additional barriers to access healthcare services due to their race, socioeconomic status, gender, or sexual orientation (Vanderbilt et al., 2015). The financial implication for underserved communities is related to the geographical locations of these persons, which makes it difficult to access these vaccinations. The majority of the vaccination in the united states of America is free; however, most vaccination centers are not located in underserved areas where these individuals might be living in poverty. They will have to look for funds to travel to receive these vaccinations, making it challenging. However, there can also be positive financial implications where financial security will be improved among underserved communities because preventing an illness through vaccination will increase investment and economic stability.

There are several reasons why the needs of stakeholders have to be considered when the decision regarding adult vaccination is put in place. The first reason is that these stakeholders play a vital role in providing funding, support, strategic direction, and the overall direction of these health policies. If the need of these stakeholders is not met, then there are minimal chances that mandatory vaccination will be accepted within the society. The second reason is that these stakeholders influence public opinion on these health policies by providing information related to this health policy issue.

Financial Influence

The key stakeholder who has a significant financial influence on the health policy are government officials. On the other hand, the key stakeholders who have a subtle or covert influence on this health policy are the underserved communities. It is important to under the financial influence of these key stakeholders related to the health policy of adult immunization because it will determine who can successfully offer the funding which is needed for this health policy and its success.

Benefits and Disadvantages

Governmental officials can benefit from this issue by receiving the funding they need to implement this health issue of mandatory vaccination successfully. The key stakeholders who will be disadvantaged are human rights groups who will incur costs related to legal and court fees when protecting the right of choice of being vaccinated or not to be vaccinated (Høiseth & Keitsch, 2015). The underserved areas can also financially benefit from this health policy, where the financial security will be improved because the prevention of diseases and infections through vaccination will result in increased investment and improved economic stability.

Competing Value Conflicts

The types of the financial value of conflicts that might be identified include potential conflict of interest where there might be private interest that can conflict with the stakeholders in public. The second type of conflict is the perceived conflict of interest where public would form a view that the stakeholders, such as government officials, would improperly influence decisions related to the public health policy issue (Besley et al., 2017). It is important to understand these conflicts to help develop ways and strategies to address them to ensure a successful implementation of this public policy issue. The completion between these financial value conflicts can result in the failure of implementation of mandatory adult vaccination. It can affect the key stakeholders who will not receive vaccination for this disease, putting their overall well-being at risk.

The key stakeholders affected by the mandatory immunization policy are government officials, underserved populations, and human rights groups. These stakeholders will have to bear financial costs or look for funding to implement this health policy. Governmental officials have a significant financial influence on the health policy, while underserved communities will have a covert financial influence on this health policy.

References

Besley, J. C., McCright, A. M., Zahry, N. R., Elliott, K. C., Kaminski, N. E., & Martin, J. D. (2017). Perceived conflict of interest in health science partnerships. PLoS One, 12(4), e0175643.

Høiseth, M., & Keitsch, M. (2015). Using phenomenological hermeneutics to gain an understanding of stakeholders in healthcare contexts.

Vanderbilt, A. A., Dail, M. D., & Jaberi, P. (2015). Reducing health disparities in underserved communities via interprofessional collaboration across health care professions. Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare, 8, 205.