The Health Policy Process
The Policy Process [Due Day#]
Assignment Content
To prepare for this assignment, review the key components of the health care policy process in Ch. 4 of Longest’s Health Policymaking in the United States (7th ed.).
The policy cycle approach provides lawmakers with a pathway for developing a policy and guiding it through the institutions of our government. The cycle starts with identification of a targeted problem and ultimately ends up with providing a specific course of action. Along the way, the outcomes of a policy are subjected to various levels of review, evaluation, and revisions that result in a continual loop. In essence, the policy cycle consists of a series of interlocking steps that actually serves as a dialogue between the main stakeholders. As a health care administrator, it’s important to have a working knowledge of the process and how the process ultimately leads to implementation of health care laws that eventually will have an impact on what you do.
Write a 700- to 1,050-word paper that explains the policy process. Be sure to do the following in your paper:
Explain the various stages and the key components associated with each stage in the policy process.
Discuss formulation, legislation, implementation, evaluation, analysis, and revision.
Identify who the main stakeholders are for each stage in the policy process.
Cite at least 3 reputable references. Reputable references include trade or industry publications, government or agency websites, scholarly works a textbook, or other sources of similar quality.
Format your assignment according to APA guidelines.
The Health Policy Process
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The Health Policy Process
The policymaking process involves making vital decisions in various phases: formulating, making legislation, implementing, evaluating, analyzing, and revising policies. There are essential stakeholders and components associated with these stages of policymaking.
Formulation
The first phase of health policymaking, the formulation phase, consists of agenda-setting and the establishment of legislation. The stage leads to new specific public policies or amendments to existing ones (Meacam, 2021). The agenda-setting entails interactions of different health-related issues, potential solutions, and political conditions to formulate or amend health policies. According to Meacam (2021), some political personnel, such as the President and Congress members, initiate the policymaking process by identifying the problem and possible solution and making the relevant legislation.
Legislation
The establishment of legislation occurs when policymakers suggest specific legislation, the hypothetical solutions concerning the identified health issue. The proposals can undergo various steps to create new health policies or amend existing laws. First, the Congress members refer the proposals to standing committees who hear and recommend amendments to the bill and the committees that examine the proposals and can order the bills (Meacam, 2021). Afterward, the committee staff publicizes a written report highlighting the legislation's purpose and impacts; the majority leader and Speaker schedule the legislation on the calendar, and Congress Members debate and vote for or against the bill and refer it to other Chambers for concurrence purposes. The President can then sign for or against the bill, but Congress can override the decision if the President vetoes the bill. Therefore, stakeholders involved in this stage are public officials, congress members, the President, experts, opponents, and bill supporters.
Implementation
This phase entails managing resources like finances and personnel to achieve the enacted legislation's goals. According to Meacam (2021), health experts and the personnel in the executive branch agencies and departments, including the President, implement the enacted legislation or health policies to impact health. The stage involves creating, rulemaking, operations, and evaluating public laws (Meacam, 2021). Designing or creating public laws involves developing the working agenda, planning accomplishment strategies, and organizing the department or agency to do the work. Designing entails planning, staffing, organizing, controlling, directing, and making decisions to enhance successful health policy implementation. In rulemaking, the executive branch, through the implementing organization, develops regulations or policies that guide and influence the implementation of health amendments and laws (Meacam, 2021). In operations, the administrative agency implements the health policy to enhance its operatio...