ENG LAST assignment

Running head: HEALTHCARE AND ECONOMIC POLICIES 1

HEALTHCARE AND ECONOMIC POLICIES 4

HEALTHCARE AND ECONOMIC POLICIES

Jakeria Sanders

Columbia Southern

Public health and economic policies have been changed significantly by covid-19 in the past year, this was to be seen and was inevitable because the pandemic was being spread more when people converged. Therefore restrictions had to be put in place to ensure that the disease spread was minimized as much as possible and the best way to do this is by changing public health and economic policies. Some of the healthcare policies that have changed include the fact that the federal government has taken tremendous steps in making the process of receiving and providing care to be done through telehealth, this is a temporary measure that was created under the covid-19 public health emergency declaration. Other policies that have been changed include the Medicaid and Medicare policies where federal covid-19 waivers and regulatory changes that have been made that allow health providers to give telehealth services to both Medicare and Medicaid patients (Blewett & Hest, 2020). These changes made on the different policies especially in public health were very necessary since people who needed frequent Medicaid and Medicare services were now able to access these services easily through telehealth services without them going physically to hospital buildings.

The fiscal policy was an economic policy that was there pre covid-19 period and was changed due to the covid-19 pandemic. The initial package of the policy was for three months but the package was extended subsequently to support the individuals who were hit most by the pandemic. The measures in the 2020 fiscal package included in it; the salary payment for Bahrainis working in the private sector, reducing water and electricity bills for both individuals and companies, redirecting Tamkeen programs to support the most affected small and micro-small enterprises; exempting commercial and industrial entities from paying taxes and other government fees and doubling the liquidity fund’s size to support the SME’s (Romer & Romer, 2021). All these changes were initially not there but with the coming of the pandemic these changes had to be made and these helped a lot in ensuring that companies and individuals survived the economic situation that the country was in at that time.

In as much as these policies changes were made due to the situation that the country was in at that time in terms of healthcare and even economically, some of these changes are permanent while others are transitory will return to the pre-pandemic status. Healthcare policies that were made especially on the Medicare and Medicaid policies that were aimed at introducing telehealth services by healthcare providers to patients are some of the policies that are likely to be permanent. Policies that are likely to be transitory and will return to the pre-pandemic status are the economic policies that were made especially on the fiscal package will be temporary. Businesses will go back to paying government fees, the funds that were directed to supporting the adversely affected entities will be seized and things will go back to the way that they were in pre-covid times.

References 

Blewett, L. A., & Hest, R. (2020). Emergency flexibility for states to increase and maintain Medicaid eligibility for LTSS under COVID-19. Journal of ageing & social policy, 32(4-5), 343-349. Retrieved from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08959420.2020.1774312?casa_token=uWNboXR1jvAAAAAA:KY-ergNcWh8k0Y0TZet35MEhpnxVM4NbVSV_w_M7uplog75JmC1QY3hQPNIazXyKSAfAVHjpC-n42n9YxA

Romer, C. D., & Romer, D. H. (2021). The fiscal policy response to the pandemic. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. Retrieved from: https://eml.berkeley.edu/~cromer/Reprints/Pandemic%20Fiscal%20Policy/Romer%20and%20Romer%20Data%20Appendix.pdf