Proposal for Coordinating State Public Health Policy With Stakeholders
Unlike most other developed nations, the United States does not have a unified healthcare system. Even with the passage of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), the first major health reform law passed in this country in nearly 50 years, the United States continues to provide healthcare services through a patchwork of public and private insurance plans; federal, state, and local governments; and institutions and individual providers who are often unconnected to one other.
For instance, lack of coordination within the healthcare system that leave all parts of the system fragmented and not working together has undermined the success of the federal government’s commitment to address national health challenges through initiatives such as Healthy People 2020 (Teitelbaum & Wilensky, 2020).
Imagine you are a newly appointed public health policy expert working in your state’s public health department. In your first policy meeting, the director expresses concern about the growing number of staff in the department who continuously blame policy failures on other stakeholders. Your supervisor believes that there are misconceptions about the role of stakeholders in public health policy among the department’s staff.
As the first step to address this concern, your supervisor asks you to conduct research and write a mini-report that identifies and assesses the following issues.
Describe the key roles of at least four major stakeholders/players, to include a mix of public and private (i.e., federal or state agencies, providers, insurance companies, professional organizations, public health institutions, lobbyist organizations) you believe to have significant influence on your state’s public health policies.
List these agencies and organizations and describe their effectiveness.
Your proposal must present a clear supporting argument that identifies the role of the stakeholders for public health policy in your state and analysis with your evidence.