Health Policy and Politics

The past few years, we have all heard a great deal about Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act. Where ever you stand on this particular issue, the Affordable Care Act, is a great example of health care policy and politics at work.

Health care is one of the most regulated industries in the country. Each of these regulations were created as a result of something referred to as health policy. According to the World Health Organization, health policy helps to define goals and set goals for the short and long term. Health policy also builds consensus.

Sometimes, though, politics and negotiations in health policy are forgotten. Multiple factors may have come into play in order for a health care law to exist. Before the Affordable Care Act came into existence, many other proposals and laws were introduced and failed. In fact, the Affordable Care Act took a long time to create. Many players, special interest groups, politicians, and citizens all played a role.

Several health policy issues start at what is called a grassroots level. The grassroots level refers to the local people, the roots of health policy.  Individual citizens may have particular reasons they are interested in health policy. MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) is a great example of grassroots health policy advocates. Once a policy issue is determined, the citizens then usually take the issue to their local or state representative. The interest group attempts to lobby support for their particular policy issue, whether it is vaccination, health insurance, or healthcare treatment laws.

Once they have a representative on their side and possibly have engaged other citizens and interest groups, the representative may also try to find a colleague to work with him/her on a bill. The bill is then introduced into a Committee, which determines if the bill is strong enough to reach the floor of the House of Representatives of that state. There are many other steps that take place that will not be addressed here. If the bill passes committee, it will then be considered and voted on by the floor. The policy issue will then be debated by the various members of the House of Representatives, each with their own interest groups and citizens, known as constituents, lobbying for them.

If the bill passes, then it will go to the state's governor for final approval. Once the governor signs off on the bill, the policy issue then becomes a law. This is a very simplistic version of health policy in action at a state level.