Health Policy Discussion Responses
POST
Health Policy and Its Influence
The discussion post authored by L.N. concerning health policy and its various influences was well-written and informative, providing a clear definition of the term while also providing tangible examples of health policies as they currently exist. By beginning the discussion with a scholarly reference to the definition of health policy constructed by Williams and Torrens in 2008, which classifies the term as a collection of targeted laws, entitlement benefits, regulatory practices, administrative edicts, and the various participatory conditions applied to patients, this post immediately establishes the focus of the subsequently presented information. I especially enjoyed how the discussion shifted to the real-world implications of a seemingly abstract discussion of health policy as a concept, because in reality the application of health policy affects hundreds of millions of Americans in terms of patient acuity. By referencing the cooperative dynamic which exists between publically accountable policymakers on the local, state and federal legislative level, and the private interest groups who employ legions of lobbyists to manipulate the health policy process, L.N. is successful in capturing the reader's interest through a direct appeal to their sense of fairness and logic -- which is an especially effective rhetorical strategy. The discussion then shifts its focus once again, this time to examine the notion that the delivery of successful patient outcomes and high quality has have been converted from a formerly institutional responsibility -- that is one effected predominately by hospitals and private practices on an internal basis -- to a matter of public policy supervised by governmental oversight. To emphasize this point, L.N. concludes by referencing the controversial Affordable Care Act as a prime example of this foundational shift in the
examining the fundamental link between health policy and leadership within the health care industry contained a
wealth of
statistical data, scholarly citations, and other evidence to support its central thesis. By employing a direct rhetorical approach and immediately referencing a concrete example of health policy and its
connection to leadership -- in this case the Child Nutrition and
Women, Infants, and Children Reauthorization Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-265) -- T.H. opens the discussion with a frank assessment of this particular policy's efficacy. As is pointed out in the post, although this
law was enacted to mandate the creation of school wellness policies to curb the rising rate of
childhood obesity, the actual leadership abilities of those district superintendents, school nurses, and physical
education teachers charged with implementing the policy led to a minimal impact. The post then goes on to discuss the actual changes in school operation that occurred as a result of this…
