Running head: POLICY BRIEF
Policy Brief on the War on Poverty’s Effects on Health Care Use of the Elderly
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation
POLICY BRIEF 2
Problem Identification
Racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare remain a serious issue in the United States.
Disparities in the access to healthcare services have detrimental health effects on various people,
especially on individuals from the minority communities within the United States. African
Americans and other minority and vulnerable groups are usually more likely to be impacted by
disparities in healthcare compared to their white counterparts. According to Carvalho et al.
(2019), disparities in healthcare have persisted and cases around it have continued to increase in
the recent past. Some of the factors that contribute to the increase disparities in access to
healthcare services in the United States include ever-growing costs of healthcare services and the
existence of different insurance programs Therefore, it is of great importance that the problem of
disparities in access to healthcare, which has continued to affect many individuals, including the
elderly is addressed early enough to ensure equality in the access to healthcare services and
desegregation of hospitals (Mitchell & Perry, 2020).
Policy Analysis
Dealing with the problem of racial and ethnic disparities in access to healthcare in the
United States called for the adoption of the Medicare and Medicaid programs. These programs
aim to increase the supply of nurses, physicians, and dentists in low-income and rural regions.
The also aim to reduce the elderly’s risk of financial ruins from costly healthcare services. What
is more, the programs aims to significantly reduce the gaps that exist between elderly poor and
their wealthy counterparts in terms to access to healthcare. Medicare and Medicare programs
also aim to reduce income disparities in access to healthcare services. In particular, Medicare
reduces the disparities that exist in access to healthcare by elderly by providing them with
insurance that is similar to the one held by older whites. The birth of Medicare and Medicaid has
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significantly reduced ethnic and racial disparities in access to healthcare services. Besides, the
number of insured people, including the elderly and individuals from low income families has
tremendously increased over the years. These programs have also led to the racial integration of
hospitals,
One of the pending regulatory proposals is the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care
Act aims to significantly increase the number of insured Americans. Additionally, this policy
option has the potential to reduce disparities in health and access to health among the elderly.
According to Como et al. (2019), the Affordable Care Act benefits the elderly by increasing
Medicaid and Medicare payments to healthcare providers, thus promoting increased coordination
of care for health issues such as chronic health problems (Allende, Gusmano, & Weisz, 2019).
The adoption of Medicare and Medicaid programs has the potential of reducing the issue
of racial and ethical disparities in access to healthcare among certain groups of people, including
the elderly. Nonetheless, these programs have not been effective enough in addressing this issue.
Particularly, Medicare program largely depend on the issue of cost-sharing, which has led to a
significant increase in the number of low-income elderly individuals who are facing monetary
challenges paying for care. The programs have also exposed more individuals, especially the
elderly to risk of not being able to pay for their healthcare services. Therefore, these policy
options do not directly address the problem of increasing disparities in the U.S. healthcare sector.
There is need for a more direct solution which has the potential of dealing with the above
problem as a faster rate to significantly reduce the problems associated with racial and ethnic
disparities in healthcare access (Kimmel et al., 2016).
Strategy and Policy Development
POLICY BRIEF 4
Given that the abovementioned policy options have failed to directly tackle the problem,
the best alternative policy option for dealing with the widening disparities in health and access to
healthcare service is more sustainable Medicare and Medicaid programs. More financially
sustainable Medicare and Medicaid programs are the best policies that can help deal with
disparities in healthcare because they reduce waste and inefficiencies, thus the cost of healthcare
services. This proposed policy can be likened to various verses in the Bible. For example, the
book of Genesis 1: 27 which states that “God created man in his own image” advocates for
justices and fairness in all aspects of life, including healthcare. Therefore, the proposed policy is
the best alternative policy to address the issue of disparities in healthcare because it promotes
quality and just universal healthcare. There is no doubt that the proposed recommendation is
feasible because it is cost-friendly and does not require a lot to be implemented (de Lancer &
Choi, 2020).
The strategy for drafting a bill around this policy recommendation entails improving the
financial stability of the available policy options. Some of the stakeholders who will be engaged
include members of the Congress, the public, and healthcare unions. When drafting this strategy,
some of the information that will be needed from the stakeholders include information
concerning the challenges they encounter when using the available policy options, what they
have done about those challenges, as well as what they think can be done to address those
challenges. Some of the potential enablers to the proposed policy options include support from
the public and the lawmakers. On the contrary, the process of enacting the policy options may be
hindered by factors such as lack of political support and good will. The above barriers can be
mitigated by increasing awareness concerning the proposed policy option and how beneficial it
will be to Americans, the healthcare sector, and the government at large (Kimmel et al., 2016).
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Policy Enactment
The first step for enacting the above policy at the state or federal level entails developing
the policy. Once the policy has been developed, it is taken to the Congress and introduced by the
individual sponsoring it. After it has been introduced, the bill is assigned to a team consisting of
people who will research more about it and make any changes. The final step entails putting the
bill before the chamber for voting to take place.
Policy Implementation
There are a number of individuals and agencies who are involved in implementing the
above policy. Key among the stakeholders include healthcare organizations, professionals,
healthcare providers, and insurance agencies. Some of the resources that will be needed to
implement the policy include financial resources and human resources. Some of the rules or
administrative decisions that may be developed by implementing agencies in the implementation
phase include rules on the way care should be provided to every individual and promotion of
equality in the healthcare sector. Some of the indicators for evaluating the impact of this policy
would include a reduction in the cost of care and a significant reduction in the number of
uninsured individuals within the United States.
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References
Allende, C., Gusmano, M. K., & Weisz, D. (2019). Disparities in Statin Use in New York City:
Implications for Health Reform. Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities, 6(3), 463-
471.
Carvalho, N., Petrie, D., Chen, L., Salomon, J. A., & Clarke, P. (2019). The impact of Medicare
part D on income-related inequality in pharmaceutical expenditure. International journal
for equity in health, 18(1), 57.
Como, D. H., Stein Duker, L. I., Polido, J. C., & Cermak, S. A. (2019). The persistence of oral
health disparities for African American children: a scoping review. International journal
of environmental research and public health, 16(5), 710.
de Lancer Julnes, P., & Choi, S. W. (2020). Equity-Efficiency Tradeoff: The Hospital
Readmissions Reduction Program And Disparities In Outcomes Among Vulnerable
Medicare Heart Failure Patients In Pennsylvania. Journal of Health and Human Services
Administration, 43(1), 23-48.
Kimmel, P. L., Fwu, C. W., Abbott, K. C., Ratner, J., & Eggers, P. W. (2016). Racial disparities
in poverty account for mortality differences in US Medicare beneficiaries. SSM-
population health, 2, 123-129.
Mitchell, J. A., & Perry, R. (2020). Disparities in patient-centered communication for Black and
Latino men in the US: Cross-sectional results from the 2010 health and retirement study.
PloS one, 15(9), e0238356.
