For this Application, which you will begin this week and complete by the end of next week, you are asked to analyze a core policy about health or healthcare. Examples might include policies on scope of practice for healthcare practitioners or on health insurance for children. After selecting your policy, locate resources to help you understand the specifics of it, including how its programs are organized and financed, how the services are delivered, and, generally, how well the policy has been implemented to date. Make sure to select a policy on which you can focus in some detail. If you choose to analyze the policy on insurance for poor children, for example, you will soon discover that this policy differs from state to state, so you might wish to focus primarily on your state’s policy. Search Walden Library’s databases to find an article explaining the background on this policy—the journal Health Affairs, for example, frequently publishes summaries on initiatives in child health insurance. In addition, learn about the pros and cons of this policy by locating opinion statements issued by state or national organizations, such as the American Hospital Association (AHA) or American Medical Association (AMA). Many of these organizations have Web sites in which they not only explain their perspective or opinion on a policy but also have legislative sections with commentary on policy proposals currently under consideration in government. To analyze this core policy, it is important that you gather this breadth of information. In your paper, you must cite the following: At least two articles, Web sites, or other credible and neutral sources providing analysis of this core policy; at least one of these sources must be a peer-reviewed article. At least two opinion statements from stakeholders regarding the policy. To find these, consider who the stakeholders would be. AMA, for example, has an important stake in whether or not children are covered by insurance or not, and would be a good source for such a statement. Look also for opinion papers from other professional or special-interest organizations. These might be on Web sites or in journals. At least one of these statements should be from a stakeholder Web site. After reviewing these materials, write a two to three page paper in which you address the following: Summarize the policy and its main goals. Describe its implications on organization, financing, and delivery of healthcare services in the U.S. Discuss why you think this policy was introduced and any challenges it has faced. For example, has it faced major challenges in being funded or implemented? Summarize the opinions you have read. Based on this and your own understanding of the issue, do you think the policy needs to be changed significantly in order to meet its goals? Include an APA bibliography (in addition to the body of the two to three page paper), with a minimum of the four references, as described above.
