Health policy influence and implementation frameworks

Health Policy Influence

Health policy has a big influence on health care leadership. The decisions made about health policy are the driving forces behind the actual health care that is offered to society (Torrens, 2013). In turn, that affects the leadership of that health care. Because leadership has a trickle-down effect on the rest of the health care industry, what leaders are required to do and the rules they have to follow both have consequences for the people they lead and the people who are treated by the health care system. The most important and significant health care policy in the U.S. today is Obamacare (Barr, 2011). It is designed to provide millions of people with affordable health care, but there have been glitches and problems with it from the day it was rolled out and enrollment started. There are still problems, and the website is a large part of the issue. It does not work correctly, and that stops people from signing up so they can get the care they need beginning in January of 2014.

That affects health care leaders because they are left not having a good idea of what kind of changes are really being made and they are not clear on the number of people who are going to be coming into the health care system. The main key points of the health care plan are the low cost of insurance, the ability to cover a large number of people, and the way people are required to sign up for the health care or pay a penalty (Barr, 2011). With that in mind, health care leaders must focus on issues they deem important and keep those issues within the confines of Obamacare and the changes that are coming from it. That is true with any organization based in the health care industry. Leaders are advocates for the type of health care they want to see from those who work underneath them (Torrens, 2013). Because of that, they must be aware of the kinds of changes they are being asked to deal with, both now and in the future. The biggest concern with Obamacare is that leaders do not know exactly what is going to take place with it, since it has not been tried before.

Health policy is very different from the making of other kinds of policy (CCH, 2010). That is part of the reason that it is so confusing for leaders who are dealing with Obamacare. They want to make policies that work for them and their organizations, but they also have to follow the policies that were created by the Obama Administration. In other words, they cannot simply make a policy that works for health care, unless it works with a specific type of health care (i.e. Obamacare). The Obamacare policy will affect health delivery in organizations because of the requirements that so many people join up and get coverage. While getting health care coverage is very important, the large number of people with insurance is going to inundate those who are offering health care, like doctors and hospitals (Torrens, 2013). That inundation can lower the quality of care given to people who need it, and stop leaders in the health care field from making policy changes that would be beneficial to everyone involved.