The document discusses health care policy in the United States. It states that health care policy is influenced by political and economic factors and aims to set guidelines and standards for the healthcare system. However, problems exist with health care policy in the US, including low budgets, lack of healthcare workers, and rising costs. While the Affordable Care Act aimed to improve quality, issues still remain regarding the US receiving appropriate health care policies to benefit citizens.

1. Brittany Clark
HLST 2001 Discusson 3
Health Care Policy in the US
Health care policy is the actions that take place in order to reach health care objectives and
inform the public (World Health Organization, 2014). According to Williams & Torrens (2008),
the United States’ health care policy also depends on political and economic factors. Politics
outline the government’s involvement in health care (Williams & Torrens, 2008). However, the
government’s participation in health care is rather limited (Dolecheck, 2014). On the other hand,
heath care is also run greatly by the market and customers, which is how it also ties into
economics.
Health care policies, when being developed, usually must go through a legislative action of some
sort, which will then form regulations and responsibilities of the government in the policy
(Williams & Torrens, 2008). A policy may also follow legal actions and tests, which may allow a
development of a new program. Legal and judicial actions are the main step in the development
of a health care policy. Then, guidelines must be set in order set the policy into effect by the
program’s participants. These guidelines are specific so that the goals of the program are clear.
These guidelines will also determine how the health policy will be carried out (Williams &
Torrens, 2008).
The most obvious problem that seems to hit almost every organization is the problem of the
budget. The health care policy is no exception. In the present, hospitals are already working
under a low budget. But in the future, the cost of medicines will no doubt rise, causing more
money to have to be put into the health industry, which will also affect the consumer. Another

2. problem is the lack of workers in the health care field. Nurses that are trained and educated are in
short supply. The ability to obtain malpractice insurance, because of its cost, is also affected
physicians. Therefore, health care policies do affect the professionals.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) defines high quality care as care that is “safe, effective, patient-centered,
timely, efficient, and equitable.” Although the quality of health care that an individual
is very important, many people receive poor-quality services instead. According to the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation (2014), health care in the America is “high-cost and low-quality.”
The RWJF foundation also states that America spends 50% more on health care than any other
country. But despite this, the US has shorter life expectancies than most other wealthy countries.
The Affordable Care Act of 2010 expected to increase the quality of health care by reducing
hospital rates and by responding to the needs of patients, while simultaneously taking afflictions
off of the administrators (Health Affairs, 2014).
In conclusion, health care policies are in place to set a standard of guidelines for the healthcare
field. They must go through a thorough process before getting put into place. There are still
problems associated with health care policies in the US, but they are not going unnoticed.
Hopefully in the future, these problems will be worked out for the US to receive the appropriate
health care policies to benefit the people.
References
Dolecheck, J. (2014). Health Policy[PowerPoint slide]. Retrieved from moodle.ulm.edu
Health Affairs (2011). Health Policy Briefs. Retrieved from
http://www.healthaffairs.org/healthpolicybriefs/brief.php?brief_id=45

3. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2014). Health care quality - Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.rwjf.org/en/topics/rwjf-topic-areas/health-policy/
health-care-quality.html
Williams, S. J., & Torrens, P. R. (2008). Introduction to health services. Clifton Park, NY:
Thomson Delmar Learning.
World Health Organization (2014). WHO | Health policy. Retrieved from
http://www.who.int/topics/health_policy/en/