Health Care Policy Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

A health care policy is a type of social welfare policy. Like other social policies, it aims to improve the general welfare of citizens. A health care policy also distinctly aims to promote the physical and mental well-being of individuals in society.

Health care policies can operate in a variety of different ways. Some policies attempt to expand access to services; others try to improve the quality of medical benefits; some others focus on funding medical services. Health care policy operates in various ways in nations around the world, and major controversies surround the provision of health care in contemporary society.

Different Types Of Health Care Systems

One way to categorize different health care policies, at least at the national level, is to focus on the degree of government involvement. Using this criterion, there are three general types of systems. National health systems, such as those in Great Britain and Sweden, depend heavily on government involvement to provide benefits to all citizens. National health insurance systems, present in nations including France and Germany, rely on the government to establish general policies, but the private and nonprofit sectors play a key role in the process. Private health care systems, like those in the United States, depend almost extensively on the private sector for the provision of medical benefits, with only minimal involvement from the public sector, primarily to help finance medical services for particular subgroups of the population.

Although this typology is still used to describe different national health care policies, it is difficult to fit most health care systems neatly into one of these three categories. Each national system has its own structure and character, reflecting the particular context in which it has developed. Moreover, many national health care systems have changed over time— expanding or reducing the role of government, changing the scope of services, altering the covered populations, or adjusting the reimbursement mechanisms. As a result, other ways of describing the variability in health care policy are necessary.

Variability In Health Care Policy

Even when governments are involved in health care policy, their role is not the same in every nation. The government can serve as a regulator to determine minimum levels of quality and service, as in the Netherlands. A government can provide the financing so that health care services are available, such as in the United States. Or, government can actually provide health care benefits directly through publicly owned facilities, a practice in Great Britain and Portugal. These various governmental roles are not mutually exclusive of each other; governments typically assume several of these roles within the same political system.

Health care systems differ in terms of who receives care. In some nations, health care policies are universal in nature—all citizens are eligible to receive benefits. Universal health care policies can be found in Japan, Canada, Mexico, France, and Sweden. Alternatively, other health care policies are more limited in scope. In such systems, health care benefits are restricted to particular subgroups of the population, such as the elderly people and veterans, or to specific “needy” groups (low-income families, populations with special needs, etc.). The Medicare and Medicaid programs in the United States are examples of limited health care policies.

There are also noticeable variations in how health care policies across political systems are financed. Some countries, such as Great Britain, Sweden, Australia, and New Zealand, rely on tax collections and government funds to finance health care. Other nations, like Germany, France, and Japan, use employer and employee contributions. Still others, like the United States, depend heavily on individual contributions to private health care plans in order to fund health care benefits for the majority of their citizens.

Health care policies also differ between those that are curative versus preventative in nature. Preventative policies try to address medical problems before they arise (or worsen).These include the use of vaccines to prevent the spread of diseases and routine checkups to identify problems in earlier stages before they become more serious. On the other hand, curative policies focus on dealing with medical problems after they have developed. These can include a range of typical medical treatments, such as hospitalizations and long-term care.

Concerns And Controversies

Since the 1980s, health care policies have received an increasing amount of attention because of the rising costs associated with providing medical services. Data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) demonstrate, quite clearly, the growth of health care expenditures. From 1991 to 2001, the growth of health care spending exceeded the growth of the total gross domestic product (GDP) in all thirty of the OECD nations. On average, health care expenditures now consume 8.9 percent of the GDP in the thirty democracies that make up the OECD.

Health care spending has increased around the world as political systems have expanded program coverage to include more groups of the population, as more advanced (and expensive) medical procedures have become available, as demographic changes have produced older populations in need of more medical services, and as citizens’ expectations about necessary health care benefits have expanded. Hence, all nations struggle with rising health care costs and seek ways to decrease health care expenditures while maintaining services to their populations.

Health care policies also do not act in isolation from other public policies. For example, environmental policies affect the quality of drinking water which, in turn, influences the health of a population. Similarly, business policies can make the workplace a safer environment; for instance, requiring stricter standards and regulations improves the health care status of workers. Additionally, income support and assistance policies can provide citizens with the finances they need to maintain healthy diets and eating habits. Therefore, the impacts of health care policies often link to those of other public policies.

Health care policies can also trigger additional policy problems. Many health care policies aim to improve the life expectancy of the population. If successful, these policies will increase the size of the elderly population. Larger elderly populations possess greater health care needs, and they also require other, quite expensive, types of social services, such as retirement benefits and housing support. Similarly, health care policies that restrict benefits to certain population groups or problems may leave other segments of the population without adequate medical coverage. This, in turn, can put pressure on employment programs and other social services.

Bibliography:

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Theodoulou, Stella Z. Policy and Politics in Six Nations. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002.

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