Select 1 Health Issue Such as Diabetes
Complete the following for this assignment:
Select 1 health issue such as diabetes, cancer, aging, chronic diseases, or obesity, and describe how current health policy (federal or state) addresses this health issue.
List the steps required to develop health policy that impacts the targeted population.
Evaluate whether or not the health policy related to the issue selected has the potential to transform health care delivery in the United States.
If you believe the current policy is not effective, make recommendations to improve the health policy, and support your work using credible, cited sources.
Note: Your post must include 2 quality references, 1 of which is from a peer-reviewed source and published within the last 5 years.
Sample Answer
Health Policy in the United States
Diabetes Issue and Its Current ACA Health Policy
The health issue I select is diabetes. Diabetes affects how individuals’ body turns food into energy (American Diabetes Association 2020). The burden of chronic illnesses counting diabetes, is high and rising in the U.S. Control of these chronic illnesses needs efficient approaches, counting patient-based education, team care, and provider knowledge. Efficient policies should also be enacted to address the issue of chronic diseases at the state, local, and federal levels. This is particularly true concerning diabetes, which has amounted to higher costs in terms of treatments. A current health policy that addresses the issue of diabetes is the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. This policy is the most significant federal medical legislation enacted since Medicare. Though the goal of ACA is improving the health care coverage, access, and value for all Americans, individuals with diabetes especially are poised to benefit from complete reforms involved in this act.
ACA, for one, address the rising costs of diabetes by providing more oversight of the health insurance practices and premiums, stressing prevention, primary care, and effective treatments; minimizing healthcare abuse; minimizing unpaid care to stop change to insurance premium costs (Brown & Delavar 2018). That’s why as a result, there’s enhanced access that has reduced the barrier for individuals with diabetes to obtain care. Secondly, in terms of diagnosis, ACA holds provisions that need health insurance plans to provide free diabetes screening, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure to individuals at higher danger for these particular conditions (Marino et al., 2020). Thirdly, there’s a potential to transform healthcare delivery as ACA health policy addresses physician shortages that ease some access to the care issues. Estimates issued before application of ACA based health insurance marketplaces projected that complete application of ACA, counting expansion of Medicaid in all U.S states, would involve roughly 2.5–3 percent increase in primary care staff or about 4000–8000 physicians, and this may exacerbate the current shortage of care physicians in the United States. Besides, the policy supports significant new research initiatives meant to transform diabetes care delivery.
Steps Required to Develop Health Policy
Numerous steps are required to develop health policy in relation to impacting a targeted population. These include first describing the problem affecting the population, secondly assessing the readiness for the policy development; thirdly developing the objectives, goals, and policy options; and the fourth step identifying the influencers and decision-makers. The fifth step involves building support for the policy, the sixth step drafting and revising the policy, seventh step implementing policy, and finally assessing and monitoring the health policy.
If ACA Has Potential to Change Healthcare Delivery in the United States
ACA health policy has the potential to change healthcare delivery in the U.S. This is due to its provisions that improve quality and system performance and expand the health workforce. Therefore, as a result, ACA for instance will continue setting federal standards for health insurers providing products in small-group and individual markets and employer-sponsored health benefit plans (Glied, Collins & Lin 2020). Similarly, the policy will continue encouraging employers to assume workplace wellness actions that endorse and incentivize real health results. Wellness-based activities require not to be limited to contributing to the wellness programs but may consist of incentives meant to attain enhanced health outcomes. As a result, healthcare delivery will change for better.
References
- American Diabetes Association. (2020). Introduction: standards of medical care in diabetes—2020. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-Sint
- Brown, D. S., & Delavar, A. (2018). The Affordable Care Act and insurance coverage for persons with diabetes in the United States. Journal of hospital management and health policy, 2. Doi: 10.21037/jhmhp.2018.04.07
- Glied, S. A., Collins, S. R., & Lin, S. (2020). Did The ACA Lower Americans’ Financial Barriers to Health Care? A review of evidence to determine whether the Affordable Care Act effectively lowered cost barriers to health insurance coverage and health care. Health Affairs, 39(3), 379-386. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01448
- Marino, M., Angier, H., Springer, R., Valenzuela, S., Hoopes, M., O’malley, J., … & Huguet, N. (2020). The Affordable Care Act: effects of insurance on diabetes biomarkers. Diabetes care, 43(9), 2074-2081. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc19-1571
