Running head: EXPLORING THE HEALTH CARE POLICY 1 EXPLORING THE HEALTH CARE POLICY 2 Exploring the Health Care Policy Shekima Jacob South University Exploring the Health Care Policy Policies, plans, and strategies within the healthcare system are not culminations by themselves. Altogether, they form part of the larger approach that purposes to align a country’s set priorities with the actual health needs of the public. Through health and developmental partners, inclusion of the private sector, consideration of the civil societies, and the participation of the government not to mention the political parties, health policies effectively influence the available resources in favour of the public. Healthcare surfaces amongst the essential aspects in today’s life amongst education and transportation further indicating its necessity to the global population. These strategies and healthcare policies thus ensure that all citizens under state and federal governments have unlimited access to valuable healthcare services thus living longer and healthier lives (Chard, 2004). In relation to finances, better healthcare lowers government expenditure thus allowing the allocation of the saved resources to other departments such as education or agriculture. From another angle, the significance of healthcare policy and procedures remains undisputed as depicted by the active participation of healthcare personnel. Policies in healthcare demonstrate importance as they establish a general plan of action, which is utilized by the various healthcare facilities as a guide towards the achievement of mutual goals. In a state such as Georgia, it communicates to healthcare personnel the desired results of their participation thus aligning their diverse roles towards a mutual objective such as the provision of quality services (Abood, 2007). As such, all hospitals within a particular locality, such as Georgia in this case, end up providing standardized services thus ensuring that everyone receives quality services regardless of the hospital they visit. Therefore, healthcare policies set a platform for the delivery of safe, quality, and cost effective services hence illustrating their prominence to the population. Interest groups within the healthcare sector are those players who have the potential to influence the outcome of a proposed policy. These players can either limit the progression of a proposed policy to maturity, or, on the contrary, propel a policy to maturity and oversee its implementation in the healthcare sector. Therefore, the final voting decision relies on more factors and not only the presented merits and demerits of the policy (Abood, 2007). The most renowned players include political parties, district voters, legislators, committees, and selected representatives from select healthcare agencies, which either represent the needs of the public or those of the healthcare personnel. In a quest to shape the final content and result of the pr ...

1. Running head: EXPLORING THE HEALTH CARE POLICY 1
EXPLORING THE HEALTH CARE POLICY 2
Exploring the Health Care Policy
Shekima Jacob
South University
Exploring the Health Care Policy
Policies, plans, and strategies within the healthcare system are
not culminations by themselves. Altogether, they form part of
the larger approach that purposes to align a country’s set
priorities with the actual health needs of the public. Through
health and developmental partners, inclusion of the private
sector, consideration of the civil societies, and the participation
of the government not to mention the political parties, health
policies effectively influence the available resources in favour
of the public. Healthcare surfaces amongst the essential aspects

2. in today’s life amongst education and transportation further
indicating its necessity to the global population. These
strategies and healthcare policies thus ensure that all citizens
under state and federal governments have unlimited access to
valuable healthcare services thus living longer and healthier
lives (Chard, 2004). In relation to finances, better healthcare
lowers government expenditure thus allowing the allocation of
the saved resources to other departments such as education or
agriculture.
From another angle, the significance of healthcare policy and
procedures remains undisputed as depicted by the active
participation of healthcare personnel. Policies in healthcare
demonstrate importance as they establish a general plan of
action, which is utilized by the various healthcare facilities as a
guide towards the achievement of mutual goals. In a state such
as Georgia, it communicates to healthcare personnel the desired
results of their participation thus aligning their diverse roles
towards a mutual objective such as the provision of quality
services (Abood, 2007). As such, all hospitals within a
particular locality, such as Georgia in this case, end up
providing standardized services thus ensuring that everyone
receives quality services regardless of the hospital they visit.
Therefore, healthcare policies set a platform for the delivery of
safe, quality, and cost effective services hence illustrating their
prominence to the population.
Interest groups within the healthcare sector are those players
who have the potential to influence the outcome of a proposed
policy. These players can either limit the progression of a
proposed policy to maturity, or, on the contrary, propel a policy
to maturity and oversee its implementation in the healthcare
sector. Therefore, the final voting decision relies on more
factors and not only the presented merits and demerits of the
policy (Abood, 2007). The most renowned players include
political parties, district voters, legislators, committees, and
selected representatives from select healthcare agencies, which
either represent the needs of the public or those of the

3. healthcare personnel. In a quest to shape the final content and
result of the proposed policy, whether it is a new policy or an
amendment of an existing policy, there arises a need to identify
the supporters as well as the non-supporters of that particular
policy. As such, the parties seeking to push a certain policy
through need to be in constant communication with the members
of the germane committees, the chairperson, and most
importantly the supporting legislators. Representatives of the
public also play a significant role in policy formation because
they present the public’s opinion and in most cases, their
opinion is taken more seriously owing to the large number of
people being represented.
The non-supporters in most cases comprise of the interest
groups who find the proposed policy either impractical to
implement, expensive to implement, or subjective to a particular
party more than another. For instance, if a policy to reduce
employee working hours would be favouring the doctors and
nurses amongst other personnel, but disregarding the needs of
the public who require health services around the clock. As
such, no representatives of the public would be in support of the
policy thus limiting its progression. Legislators ask themselves
a series of questions before they choose to support or oppose a
particular policy. Some of these considerations would include;
how does this policy affect my district? What is the public
opinion about this policy? Is my political party in support of
this policy? As such, the needs of the public need to be in
harmony with those of the political party and other interest
groups to ensure that a policy under review benefits all
interested parties equally and facilitates value addition in the
healthcare sector (Abood, 2007).
The preferences of the elected party officials play a vital part in
steering any healthcare policy moving through the policy
process towards development, implementation, and consistent
evaluation for performance. Based on the number of political
parties represented, there could be any number of diverse
opinions, which at times portray competition amongst

4. themselves not to mention the interests of the democrats and
republicans. In such instances, the political party that holds the
majority seats is more inclined towards winning the support of
other interest groups subject to the policy under review. In the
state of Georgia, for instance, party preferences are to ensure
that all policies established under the state constitution add
value to article 37 of the constitution (Hill & Georgia, 1994).
Therefore, policies under the state constitution are bound to
facilitate accessibility of medical aid through means such as
increasing the number of facilities, boosting the standards of
service provision, and supporting the insurance system to cover
more people and consequently sinking the prices for such
services. Decision makers thus rely hugely on the political
influences as they attempt to find an acceptable and feasible
directive amidst the conflicting proposals, values, and demands.
Deeper political involvement is prompted in policy changes that
involve noteworthy costs to the state government, or those that
trigger substantial controversies between the public and the
healthcare personnel.
All players in the state of Georgia need to strategize prior to
entering the legislative arena to ensure that they utilize their
political influence and power of mass numbers effectively
towards the development of effectual policies (Barker, 2006). It
is vital to understand the steps within the legislative process
and knowing the powerful players to effectively strategize and
carry out these strategies. Operative communication with
legislators and the committee members also plays a vital role in
the legislative activity as it fosters polished communication
skills between the interested parties. Georgian legislature
depicts active involvement in issues concerning policies as it
ensures that all interested parties are represented. In addition, it
provides a systematic process that all policy proposals must
follow before they have matured to the implementation stage.
The state of Georgia has also been ranked sixth in all American
states in its health policy development and implementation in
the last three years further showing the efficacy of their

5. legislative arm (Institute of Medicine (U.S.) & National
Academies Press (U.S.), 2011).
References
Abood, S. (2007). Influencing health care in the legislative
arena. Online journal of issues in
Nursing, 12(1), 3.
Barker, C. E. (2006). The health care policy process. London:
SAGE Publications.
Chard, R. E. (2004). The mediating effect of public opinion on
public policy: Exploring the
Realm of health care. Albany, NY: State University of New
York Press.
Hill, M. B., & Georgia. (1994). The Georgia state constitution:
A reference guide. Westport,
Conn: Greenwood Press.
Institute of Medicine (U.S.). & National Academies Press
(U.S.). (2011). For the public's
Health: Revitalizing law and policy to meet new challenges.
Washington, D.C: National Academies Press.