The document outlines an assignment requiring students to respond to five questions focused on various healthcare policy issues, such as public health and privacy, healthcare digitization, and access to care for women and immigrants. Each response should integrate course readings and discussions, evaluating opposing positions and identifying the role of stakeholders in these debates. The final paper is due at the end of the term and should critically assess the impact of moral perspectives, political alliances, and social conditions on health policy.

1. “
Five Questions
”
:
You will write responses to five (5) questions provided by the
instructor, each response
approximately 350-500 words long.
These questions will help you identify and evaluate:
theroleofthegoverningbodythatyouaretargetingwithyourproposal;
thetwoopposingpolicypositionsandtheirclaimsmakers(i.e.thosew
hoaresupporting
each position and their investment in that stance); and,
your integration of conceptual material from weekly readings
and class discussions
through midterm, including:
types of moral perspectives;
political alliances and relative political power of policy
proposals;
impact of social factors/social conditions on issue and proposed
solutions;
current and projected disparities in healthcare use and
outcomes.
It is expected that you will be building on these writings as you

2. proceed through the term.
list of the topic
Sources must include course readings as well as research from
peer-reviewed academic
journals.
Final write-up of the paper is due at 7 p.m. on Wednesday of
Finals Week and emailed to the instructor
.
Choose one of the following for your policy analysis paper.
Public Health and Rights to Privacy:
Should medical providers be bound by Public Health policies?
Recently, a nurse who was exposed to the Ebola virus refused
quarantine rules imposed by the legislature and health
department of New Jersey. What were the arguments on both
sides? What roles did science, cultural values and norms, and
political posturing play in policymaking? What other factors
were involved? What are implications for other issues in which
private and public health sectors must collaborate?
Is unregulated economic growth good for our health?
Scientists argue that diminishing biodiversity in our ecosystems
world-wide, much of it due to unrestricted development and
other human activity, will affect our health in the future. Are
there ways we can grow an economy and maintain diversity in
the environment?
Health care digitization and other new technologies in your
docto
r’s
office:
Physicians and their staffs are facing increased pressures to
digitize medical records, and recruit and maintain a remote
client base through telemedicine practices, i.e., incorporate new
technologies into their practices. Are these new practices
changing the doctor-patient relationship? What do both doctors
and patients think about the changes? And, what roles are
medical industries, healthcare corporations, and governments

3. playing in effecting certain changes?
Making the rules regarding wom
en’s
contraceptive choices:
One of most controversial (and litigated) provision of the
PPACA is the obligation of employer plans to cover
contraceptive services under prevention. Businesses that oppose
coverage have challenged the law and won concessions. What
are the origins of this debate, both in the construction of the law
and in the history of women
’s
contraceptive choices in America? What implications does this
have for women
’s
health care and for future policymaking? Should private
businesses be able to block access to health care for women?
What should government do in response to the problem of
access to health care?
: The Obama administration developed a health care policy that
addressed the tens of millions of Americans who in 2010 were
uninsured (and millions more who were underinsured). What
provisions of the PPACA attempt to create a more inclusive
system? What are the values and politics behind them? What are
the arguments opposed? Did the PPACA go far enough, as
others contend the U.S. should transition to a federally-funded
"Medicare for Everybody
”
universal health insurance system?
What role should medical professionals have in military anti-
terrorism practices?
: Since the exposure of abuse of detainees at Abu Gharib in Iraq
in 2003, critics have questioned the role of psychiatrists in the
justification of torture practices by military interrogators.
Should physicians and psychiatrists provide information that
helps determine how much and what kind of mistreatment could
be delivered to detainees of the military during interrogations?

4. Is there a point where a d
octor’s
obligation to
“
do no harm
”
is suspended during times of war?
MPPA 582-01, Healthcare Policy, Winter 2017_rev 30Dec2016
mg Page 12
Immigrants and health care laws:
In 1994 Californians passed an initiative, subsequently ruled
unconstitutional, that included a provision requiring medical
personnel to refuse care to undocumented immigrants. More
recently, the Obama administration has ruled that while young
undocumented immigrants may be allowed to be
“
lawfully present
”
in the U.S. (for schooling or work), they would not be eligible
for health benefits under the new health care law. What are the
obligations of a society to those within its borders? Is health
care different from other kinds of
“
benef
its”?
How have other countries addressed this issue?
Are there limits to the uses of medical technology?:
Should genetic screening be used in hiring and contracting by
employers, insurers, and governments? Is genetic enhancement
an acceptable use of technology? These and other questions can
be explored in determining at what point the costs of

5. technologies (in terms of harm to persons or communities)
outweigh the benefits.
Technology and doctor/patient interaction:
How are new medical technologies changing the doctor- patient
encounter, as well as d
octors’
approaches to clinical care? Is the use (or overuse of testing)
improving diagnostic accuracy, or is this more myth than fact?
What evidence speaks to what the balance should be between
subjective observation and laboratory data in a d
octor’s
deliberations? Does the new health care law have something to
say about the use of technologies in patient care?
Off-label marketing of drugs:
A common practice by physicians, and heavily promoted by
drug companies, off-label use of drugs was given a boost by an
appeals court decision in New York supporting marketing of
drugs for uses not approved by the FDA. What are the pros and
cons of this decision for doctors and patients? What should be
the responsibilities of drug manufacturers, and what would be
an appropriate governmental policy on this issue?
Should medical providers be allowed to deny medications on
grounds of conscience?
: First pharmacists, and then, with the new provisions in the
2010 health care law, hospitals are exercising moral or religious
grounds to gain exception to the mandate to provide birth
control medications. Should exceptions be allowed? How should
religious claims be weighed against individual rights?
Should state legislatures or U.S. Congress regulate fracking?
We are immersed in a new era of oil booms in North Dakota,
Pennsylvania, and, more recently, Central California. Water
infused with
“
various chemicals
”
(unidentified, to date) is blasted deep underground

6. –
below farms, close to water tables, handled by workers. Are
these chemicals and processes harming workers or the
environment? What responsibility do these companies have, not
only to the environment which they are changing, but to
workers and residents who may be affected by their practices?
What
’
s the future for employer-based health care coverage?:
At one time, employers willingly offered health care benefits as
they competed with each other for workers. With outsourcing in
the global labor market, high health care costs in the U.S., and a
troubled economy, employers have implemented strategies for
reducing their costs. What are some pre-2010 business
strategies and current trends, and how does the ACA address
them?
Drug shortages, high-priced generics, and American health:
Drug shortages have
MPPA 582-01, Healthcare Policy, Winter 2017_rev 30Dec2016
mg Page 13
increased dramatically in the last decade, nearly tripling. In
especially short supply is a generic version of an important
cancer drug. What is the threat to public health? Wha
t’s
wrong with the drug production and distribution system? What
have Congress and the FDA done in response? How can private
enterprise and government agencies address this problem?
15.
Health Care and the poor:
Community health providers who treat the poor find they cycle
in and out of care due to periods of homelessness, jail time, and
other barriers, disrupting medical regimens. What are
implications for individual health and public health? What
provisions of the ACA can help address these issues?
Proposing an Alternative Topic

7. If you prefer to work on a topic not listed above, you must
submit a proposal (typewritten, single-spaced, due no later than
our first class meeting) addressing each of these points and
arguing why your topic is relevant to health care policymaking
as well as recent health care reforms:
(1)
state your key policy question (
examples provided above
);
(2)
state what level of governance is involved at which a policy
decision should be made
(
local, state, federal; specific agency
), and provide the rationale for why that governmental
entity is critical for this issue;
(3)
identify 2 key positions on this issue, including how each
identifies the problem and what
each proposes for a solution;
for example, using a topic above, DTC advertising of
pharmaceuticals is argued by some as improving patient choice
and by others as inventing demand
–
what is each side identifying as a problem, and what do they
suggest be done about it?
(4)
outline sources of evidence each position puts forth in its
claims; and,
(5)
finally, looking at the topic areas for each week of this course,
consider which you expect to
be most relevant for your topic and why;
for example, DTC advertising of prescription drugs is relevant
to the study of the patient empowerment movement as well as

8. the study of medical industries and the role of profit-making in
health-related fields.