Health Medical Homework Help

Post #1

Politics play a huge role in the key issues of expanding access, reducing costs, and improving quality in our organizations, community, and practice settings. One major example of politics effecting healthcare on a national scale occurred when Medicare was created in 1965 due to there being a lack of health coverage for older Americans but this was mainly only supported by Democrats who had been trying to get national health coverage in some form since 1945 (National Academy of Social Insurance, 2018). Republicans fiercely opposed any kind of national health program, an opposition that continues currently. My area of practice has mental health deficiencies because politicians don’t want to push legislation to help these citizens nor do they want to give tax breaks to build any mental health facilities. Our county is the wealthiest in our state but there is only one small mental health hospital due to these issues. It is important to remember that the challenges of providing high quality and efficient healthcare effects everyone from patients to nurses to physicians despite political affiliations or beliefs (Keepnews, 2012). Politics and healthcare will unfortunately always be linked so it is important to understand how to work around or through the issues.

Post #2

Politics, either for better or worse, plays a critical role in health affairs. The role of politics in healthcare is reflected through public policies because politics is among the main ways of determining public policy decisions. Politics influence public policies that create, maintain, and regulate public goods that foster supportive environments for good health (Jensen & Petersen, 2017). For example, politics drive the construction of state highways and roads that impact the access to health services by the communities in remote areas. Public policies that are realized through politics can regulate natural resources to prevent health hazards. For instance, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, whose formation was political, has regulated air and water quality to minimize and ensure that citizens are safe from air-borne and water-borne diseases.

Also, public policies that are enacted politically provide direct support in ways that affect the drivers of health. An example of such as policy is the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program that helps low-income families afford basic needs like food, housing, and transportation (Greer et al., 2017). Lastly, politics create public policies that create opportunities, provide incentives and reduce barriers that influence health choices. An example of such a policy is Tennessee’s HOPE scholarship. This scholarship is designed to help Tennessee students access education which is the most significant predictor of health.