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Running head: EXPLORING THE HEALTH CARE POLICY 1

EXPLORING THE HEALTH CARE POLICY 2

Exploring the Health Care Policy

Shekima Jacob

South University

Exploring the Health Care Policy

Policies, plans, and strategies within the healthcare system are not culminations by themselves. Altogether, they form part of the larger approach that purposes to align a country’s set priorities with the actual health needs of the public. Through health and developmental partners, inclusion of the private sector, consideration of the civil societies, and the participation of the government not to mention the political parties, health policies effectively influence the available resources in favour of the public. Healthcare surfaces amongst the essential aspects in today’s life amongst education and transportation further indicating its necessity to the global population. These strategies and healthcare policies thus ensure that all citizens under state and federal governments have unlimited access to valuable healthcare services thus living longer and healthier lives (Chard, 2004). In relation to finances, better healthcare lowers government expenditure thus allowing the allocation of the saved resources to other departments such as education or agriculture.

From another angle, the significance of healthcare policy and procedures remains undisputed as depicted by the active participation of healthcare personnel. Policies in healthcare demonstrate importance as they establish a general plan of action, which is utilized by the various healthcare facilities as a guide towards the achievement of mutual goals. In a state such as Georgia, it communicates to healthcare personnel the desired results of their participation thus aligning their diverse roles towards a mutual objective such as the provision of quality services (Abood, 2007). As such, all hospitals within a particular locality, such as Georgia in this case, end up providing standardized services thus ensuring that everyone receives quality services regardless of the hospital they visit. Therefore, healthcare policies set a platform for the delivery of safe, quality, and cost effective services hence illustrating their prominence to the population.

Interest groups within the healthcare sector are those players who have the potential to influence the outcome of a proposed policy. These players can either limit the progression of a proposed policy to maturity, or, on the contrary, propel a policy to maturity and oversee its implementation in the healthcare sector. Therefore, the final voting decision relies on more factors and not only the presented merits and demerits of the policy (Abood, 2007). The most renowned players include political parties, district voters, legislators, committees, and selected representatives from select healthcare agencies, which either represent the needs of the public or those of the healthcare personnel. In a quest to shape the final content and result of the proposed policy, whether it is a new policy or an amendment of an existing policy, there arises a need to identify the supporters as well as the non-supporters of that particular policy. As such, the parties seeking to push a certain policy through need to be in constant communication with the members of the germane committees, the chairperson, and most importantly the supporting legislators. Representatives of the public also play a significant role in policy formation because they present the public’s opinion and in most cases, their opinion is taken more seriously owing to the large number of people being represented.

The non-supporters in most cases comprise of the interest groups who find the proposed policy either impractical to implement, expensive to implement, or subjective to a particular party more than another. For instance, if a policy to reduce employee working hours would be favouring the doctors and nurses amongst other personnel, but disregarding the needs of the public who require health services around the clock. As such, no representatives of the public would be in support of the policy thus limiting its progression. Legislators ask themselves a series of questions before they choose to support or oppose a particular policy. Some of these considerations would include; how does this policy affect my district? What is the public opinion about this policy? Is my political party in support of this policy? As such, the needs of the public need to be in harmony with those of the political party and other interest groups to ensure that a policy under review benefits all interested parties equally and facilitates value addition in the healthcare sector (Abood, 2007).

The preferences of the elected party officials play a vital part in steering any healthcare policy moving through the policy process towards development, implementation, and consistent evaluation for performance. Based on the number of political parties represented, there could be any number of diverse opinions, which at times portray competition amongst themselves not to mention the interests of the democrats and republicans. In such instances, the political party that holds the majority seats is more inclined towards winning the support of other interest groups subject to the policy under review. In the state of Georgia, for instance, party preferences are to ensure that all policies established under the state constitution add value to article 37 of the constitution (Hill & Georgia, 1994). Therefore, policies under the state constitution are bound to facilitate accessibility of medical aid through means such as increasing the number of facilities, boosting the standards of service provision, and supporting the insurance system to cover more people and consequently sinking the prices for such services. Decision makers thus rely hugely on the political influences as they attempt to find an acceptable and feasible directive amidst the conflicting proposals, values, and demands. Deeper political involvement is prompted in policy changes that involve noteworthy costs to the state government, or those that trigger substantial controversies between the public and the healthcare personnel.

All players in the state of Georgia need to strategize prior to entering the legislative arena to ensure that they utilize their political influence and power of mass numbers effectively towards the development of effectual policies (Barker, 2006). It is vital to understand the steps within the legislative process and knowing the powerful players to effectively strategize and carry out these strategies. Operative communication with legislators and the committee members also plays a vital role in the legislative activity as it fosters polished communication skills between the interested parties. Georgian legislature depicts active involvement in issues concerning policies as it ensures that all interested parties are represented. In addition, it provides a systematic process that all policy proposals must follow before they have matured to the implementation stage. The state of Georgia has also been ranked sixth in all American states in its health policy development and implementation in the last three years further showing the efficacy of their legislative arm (Institute of Medicine (U.S.) & National Academies Press (U.S.), 2011).

References

Abood, S. (2007). Influencing health care in the legislative arena. Online journal of issues in

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Barker, C. E. (2006). The health care policy process. London: SAGE Publications.

Chard, R. E. (2004). The mediating effect of public opinion on public policy: Exploring the

Realm of health care. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Hill, M. B., & Georgia. (1994). The Georgia state constitution: A reference guide. Westport,

Conn: Greenwood Press.

Institute of Medicine (U.S.). & National Academies Press (U.S.). (2011). For the public's

Health: Revitalizing law and policy to meet new challenges. Washington, D.C: National Academies Press.