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Analyzing the Policy

Candice Jacobs

Strayer University

PAD 510: Introduction to Public Policy Analysis

Instructor: Dr. Timothy Smith

Analyzing the Policy

Introduction

Citizen has a right to proper health care irrespective of their social, political, and economic status. Depending on the disparities among people, lack of access, and adequate healthcare facilities is the main issue facing many countries. The point of affordability, access, and availability are influenced by the social and economic situation as well as health policies in the place. In the United State, it enacted the policy of providing affordable health care facilities to deal with the problem of accessibility and affordability of health care service. This paper will analyze the policy on affordable care act in the health care industry.

Summary of the Policy

The government of the United States enacted the policy of providing affordable care a close all citizen in the year 2010. The main aim was to increase accessibility and affordability to health care facilities to the aged population by making health insurance accessible (Blumenthal, Abrams, & Nuzum, 2015). Its purpose is to remove primary barriers that existed before in accessing health care facilities by the ordinary and low-income earner.

The policy has five goals with various objective need to achieve in the implementation. The first purpose is to strengthen the health care industry at all cost (Doonan, 2016). The aim to meet this goal is through increasing insurance coverage to the existing members while increasing affordability to the unissued people by reducing the cost and strengthens cultural awareness. The second purpose is to advance scientific knowledge and innovation in the health sector. The aim is to promote investment to technology innovation and scientific research to improve patient care and health services.

The third goal is to upgrade the safety, health, and well-being of the citizens to increase access to quality support service (Ogundipe et al., 2015). The fourth goal of the policy is to improve accountability, transparency, and efficiency in government programs. The main objective is to ensure that in the implementation of the program, there is proper responsibility in establishing trust (Schembri & Ghaddar, 2017). The final goal is to improve health care’s infrastructure and workforce to strengthen the public health sector.

The policy aims at eliminating the problem of some citizen lacking access to affordable healthcare services due to their social and economic circumstances. Another problem is the challenges small business owner and employee pass in keeping up with the law and offering health insurance (Niankara, 2018). It targets the aged population who are struggling to meet their basic needs. Its goal is to provide affordable insurance cost, preventive where one may be eligible to receive health care service at no cost, offering free preventive care. It also focuses on minimizing health care premiums.

Player of the Policy

The official players involved in the affordable care policy are mostly in the political figure of the state, which is the government, including the president, the national governors, and the congress (Burgin, 2018). They have the responsibilities under the constitution to enforce the policy. The unofficial player includes the stakeholders who are affected by the system directly, such as the medical staff, patients, business owner, and employee (Béland, Rocco, & Waddan, 2015). The role does not involve legal authority by being involved in implementing and participating in the policy. The last players are the interested groups that are in favor of the system or against the plan (Gehlert, Collins, Golden, & Horn, 2015). They may include social workers, the federation of independent business, American medical association, and American for prosperity group that is well versed with the public policy relating to their areas and pharmaceutical sector.

Player’s Role and Function

The government plays a significant role in enactment and implementation of the policy through financing and regulating the program. The president ensures the policy was enacted as the law continues his contribution to ensure it achieves its objectives and goals. The congress played a significant part in ensuring the system was passed to act by looking at all possibilities of the benefits and cost to the nations (Burgin, 2018). The governors association ensures the policy is implemented in all state of the United States.

The informal groups have several responsibilities in implementing and ensure the success of the policy. The medical staff has complied with the law by providing the patient to receive the same quality healthcare services at a reduced premium (Béland, Rocco, & Waddan, 2015). They also have to ensure the patient can get access to medical care services using insurance premium services such as free preventive insurance scheme. The employer with fifty and above employee has to ensure all the employees are under health insurance services while employee decides to insurance services to adopt. They are directly affected by the policy to ensure they clearly understand the system and what they are required of them.

The interest groups such as social workers ensure full awareness of the public on the implementation of the policy. They also play a significant role in ensuring the implementation of the program due to their diversity understanding and education of different people from different diversity and background (Andrews, Darnell, McBride, & Gehlert, 2015). The federations of independent business have a voice in respecting the interest of their business such as how the policy affects the insurance industry and the burden placed on the small business owner

Description of the Player’s Interest

The government, which a significant player in the system has duties to ensure its citizen, has access to affordable medical services despite their social and economic status. It serves as the motive in providing the public to have quality healthcare services while full-filling its promise to the people of improving sustainable life. It faces a lot of opposition and negativity from other political leader and congress members in passing it as law as it tries to gain its legislative achievement (Burgin, 2018). The position of the government in power enables it to have a significant influence on other players to ensure it is enacted and implementation. The policy affected the government revenues and collection measure in providing insurance to low-income earners and unemployed.

The other player is the patients who the policy rays the significant impact. The system focuses on covering all patient, but the more influenced group are the unemployed, low-income earner, and uninsured (Andrews, Darnell, McBride, & Gehlert, 2015). They were little social education on the people on how the policy will affect their lives due to the pressure pass the law. The patients were changed, as they were to be under insurance coverage to receive healthcare services, while others hope their employer will contribute towards their insurances (Hoerl et al., 2017). The impact of the policy on the patient was mixed with various perception as to those who need coverage and those forced to take insurance coverage.

Conclusion

The United States enacted a policy on affordable medical care services to improve the accessibility and affordability of healthcare services to the most venerable group. The goal is to strengthen the health care sector by improving the quality of health services and improving the well-being of the people. The critical play of the policy includes the government, patient, business owner, medical professionals, and social worker. They are directly involved and affected by the implementation of the procedure and determine the shape of the system.

References

Andrews, C. M., Darnell, J. S., McBride, T. D., & Gehlert, S. (2015). Social Work and Implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Health & Social Work, 38(2), 67-71. doi:10.1093/hsw/hlt002

Blumenthal, D., Abrams, M., & Nuzum, R. (2015). The Affordable Care Act at 5 Years. New England Journal of Medicine, 372(25), 2451-2458. doi:10.1056/nejmhpr1503614

Burgin, E. (2018). Congress, Policy Sustainability, and the Affordable Care Act: Democratic Policy Makers Overlooked Implementation, Post-Enactment Politics, and Policy Feedback Effects. Congress & the Presidency, 45(3), 279-314. doi:10.1080/07343469.2018.1498561

Béland, D., Rocco, P., & Waddan, A. (2015). Polarized Stakeholders and Institutional Vulnerabilities: The Enduring Politics of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Clinical Therapeutics, 37(4), 720-726. doi:10.1016/j.clinthera.2015.03.005

Doonan, M. (2016). Obamacare Wars: Federalism, State Politics, and the Affordable Care Act , Series: Studies in Government and Public Policy, by Daniel Béland, Philip Rocco, and Alex Waddan. Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 47(1), e2-e2. doi:10.1093/publius/pjw029

Gehlert, S., Collins, S., Golden, R., & Horn, P. (2015). Social Work Participation in Accountable Care Organizations under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Health & Social Work, 40(4), e142-e147. doi:10.1093/hsw/hlv054

Hoerl, M., Wuppermann, A., Barcellos, S. H., Bauhoff, S., Winter, J. K., & Carman, K. G. (2017). Knowledge as a Predictor of Insurance Coverage Under the Affordable Care Act. Medical Care, 55(4), 428-435. doi:10.1097/mlr.0000000000000671

Niankara, I. (2018). The Determinants of Optional Insurance Coverage with FlexibleSpending Accounts in Post-Affordable Care Act-USA. doi:10.20944/preprints201806.0494.v1

Ogundipe, B., Alam, F., Gazula, L., Olagbemiro, Y., Osiezagha, K., Bailey, R. K., & Richie, W. D. (2015). Remaking the American Health Care System: A Positive Reflection on the Affordable Care Act with emphasis on Mental Health Care. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 26(1), 49-61. doi:10.1353/hpu.2015.0020

Schembri, S., & Ghaddar, S. (2017). The Affordable Care Act, the Medicaid Coverage Gap, and Hispanic Consumers: A Phenomenology of Obamacare. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 52(1), 138-165. doi:10.1111/joca.12146