Policymakers play a critical role in the health department in the United States. They make rules and regulations that govern that ensure the health sector in the country is operating under the right conditions (Shi, & Singh, 2014). Apart from enforcing laws they have a duty in promoting the health care of the United States population. Policy makers can adopt several tools and direction to ensure that they achieve the purpose of health promotion in the country. Policy makers can use their ability to raise sufficient revenues that will help in the provision of better and affordable health care for its citizens.
Policy makers should use their taxation power to regulate behavior in the health sector. Policy makers will be able to eliminate risky behavior in health facilities and ensure in turn that they promote health supporting behavior (Brownson, Baker, Deshpande, & Gillespie, 2017). The tax power of policy makers ensures they have the ability to place disincentives and incentives about health practices. For example, when the government uses tax relief strategies on health promoting activities, they are improving health indirectly. Policy makers can use their tax power to penalize activities that are deemed unfit and dangerous to the health sector. Tax power is also used to influence people’s decisions and actions that can undermine the environment and health.
Policymakers can also use informative and educational approaches to educating the public about health. Communication is one of the most critical factors in the health sector. Policy makers are responsible for communicating to the public about health practices that promote health in the country (Brownson, Baker, Deshpande, & Gillespie, 2017). Educational and informational interventions can be carried out at three levels. These include the population level, individual level, and group level. At the personal level, policy makers should ensure that there are legal and abundant counseling clinics to provide information about disease and injury risks. For example, reproductive health, prevention of viral diseases likes HIV. Policymakers also promote and inform behavior change for its population at the group level. This can be achieved through the introduction of health maintenance organizations. Policymakers can also use commercial speech like advertising to promote a healthy way of life and educate at the public level.
Direct regulation of practices and activities should be adopted as a strategy that will help in the promotion of health. Policy makers have the primary responsibility of setting rules, regulations, and standards of operation for health safety. Also, they have the mandate to regulate, monitor and issue punishments to people who do not comply with the regulations governing health policies. Policymakers should ensure that the control the policies they make to ensure health facilities act in accordance. People who break the law and regulations should be punished. Policy makers have the ability to modify and regulate the behavior of people in regards to health (Brownson, Baker, Deshpande, & Gillespie, 2017). They can also regulate and ensure that manufacturers produce and design their products in a way that will promote health in the country. For example, this can be achieved through ensuring that all medicine has safety caps to avoid contamination.
They can also amend some of the sale procedures that companies use and guarantee that products have specifications about the age and complete list f approved ingredients. In cases of diseases, policy makers can make sure that the population is vaccinated and treated and in extreme cases call for isolation of infected individuals from the general public. To achieve cost saving for the health care policy makers should adopt the patient centered structure and move from the supply driven structure (Porter & Lee 2013). Supply-driven stricter mainly focuses on the profits and volumes of services offered other than the satisfaction of patients. This will help reduce the cost of health care to a personal level.
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a law that was implemented by President Obama on March 23, 2010. This act is a comprehensive attempt towards creating sustainable reforms in the health sector (Hall & Lord, 2014). The bill sought to put new legislations, and subsidies that would ensure health care was affordable to everyone in the United States. The patient protection and affordable care act has not only achieved its goals but also surpassed the expectations set. During the first five years of implementation of the law, close to 11 million people in the United States bought their health care plans. This saw a decrease in the number of individuals who could not afford health care plans. Insured population increased to 10 million people in the Medicaid coverage. This increase of insured population resulted in an increase in medical access for most people who could not afford health care coverage. The health care plans among the dependent people in the United States has grown to 3 million, especially for men who are not students or married.
The PPACA Act according to (Hall & Lord, 2014) is a comprehensive care act that sought to transform the face of the healthcare plans in the United States. This health care law has ten titles touching close to all health care provisions in the heath care structure. It is an advantage for the American people since the rules are intended to provide comprehensive health plans. These acts also increase the range that consumer protection will cover and puts a strict emphasis on the need for wellness and prevention strategies. The comprehensive nature of the cat also seeks to improve the quality of health care and hospital system performance. Over the few years since its implementation, there has been a notable decrease in the rise of healthcare costs in the country and the health care workforce has experienced a significant strength.
The PPACA led to a decrease of racial disparity in the health care sector when it comes to insurance. Before the introduction of the act, most minorities in the country lacked insurance primarily African American individuals, poor people and the Latinos (Rawal, 2016). However, the PPACA Act led to an increase of 36 percent to 20 percent in a one-year span. According to Rawal (2016), Latinos in the United States have received greatest gains when it comes to health care act implemented in 2013. Healthcare has significantly improved since the implementation of the PPACA Act in the United States. The Act has also had success in providing insurance for most people in the country including individuals who had quite low levels of income. Health care has also been made accessible to everyone in the country thus increasing health care coverage.
It is an Act that has achieved a lot in the short span since it was effected. On the other hand, several measurements can be used to measure the outcomes of the legislation in the health care system. Structure measures are used to determine the capability of hospital facilities in developing quality health care (Kessell, et al. 2015). Thus the policy makers can evaluate if the hospital facilities are capable of delivering quality health care by the patient protection and affordable care act. Process measures are used to determine if the practices in the hospitals are giving quality health care.
Process measurement can be used to investigate whether the legislation guidelines are working to provide quality health care for the citizens (Kessell, et al. 2015). Outcome measurements in most cases evaluate the results of patient’s health about the legislation in the health care system. Outcomes measures are used to assess if the goals of health care have been met or not. To assess the result of the legislation act people have to analyze the medical achievements of goals and objectives set (Kessell, et al. 2015). Patient experience measures are used to determine how patients receive care and the level of accessibility. The legislation should use patient experiences to establish if their strategies are working as expected. The health reforms in the country show that to ensure changes are successful; they must include the input and insights of all key stakeholders (Kessell, et al. 2015). Reforms should not be handled at the national level, but doctors, nurses, and patients should be included in the change process. Most reforms in the health care have failed due to lack of constant and enough communication. Earlier communication helps people prepare and accept the change process. Thus communication is critical to the success of any reform process. All members of the reform process should receive detailed information about the project in all steps of the reform process to ensure it is a success.
- Brownson, R. C., Baker, E. A., Deshpande, A. D., & Gillespie, K. N. (2017). Evidence-based public health. Oxford university press.
- Hall, M. A., & Lord, R. (2014). Obamacare: what the Affordable Care Act means for patients and physicians. Bmj, 349(7), g5376-g5376.
- Kessell, E., Pegany, V., Keolanui, B., Fulton, B. D., Scheffler, R. M., & Shortell, S. M. (2015). Review of medicare, medicaid, and commercial quality of care measures: considerations for assessing Accountable Care Organizations. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 40(4), 761-796.
- Porter, M. E., & Lee, T. H. (2013). The strategy that will fix health care. Harv Bus Rev, 91(12), 24.
- Rawal, P. H. (2016). The Affordable Care Act: Examining the Facts: Examining the Facts. ABC-CLIO.
- Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (2014). Delivering health care in America. Jones & Bartlett Learning.