Policy Brief: Climate Change's Impact on Health and Healthcare Access

This policy brief examines the impact of climate change on public health in the United States, highlighting the failure of existing policies to address health disparities related to heat-related illnesses, respiratory infections, and other climate-sensitive diseases. The report identifies vulnerable populations, including young and older individuals, non-US citizens, and those with limited access to healthcare, who are disproportionately affected by climate change. It analyzes the lack of equitable access to healthcare services and racial discrimination as key factors exacerbating health inequalities. The policy brief recommends tracking deaths among non-US citizens, implementing interventions to reduce heat exposure, and reducing cultural and language barriers to improve healthcare access. It emphasizes the need for stakeholder collaboration, including policymakers, government agencies, and healthcare professionals, to create a more inclusive and effective climate change policy that protects all citizens and reduces mortality rates associated with climate change. The report also discusses the positive impact of policy changes on healthcare delivery systems, including early screening, care provision regardless of demographic factors, and nursing advocacy for improved access.

Running head: POLICY ISSUE
POLICY ISSUE
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

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Introduction:
Over the last 35 years, the researchers have highlighted that ice-core records of climatic
and environmental variations from the Polar Regions and low-latitude high-elevation ice fields
impacted a significant number of individuals. Even though climate change policy has
implemented in the USA, the issue associated with policy impacted various individuals every
year (Gergel et al., 2017). This paper will provide a policy issue, impacted population and
recommended policy change in the following paragraphs.
Discussion:
Policy issue:
While various climate change approaches have been designed for reducing the severe
impact of climate change, the major impact of the climate change in the United States observed
the heat-related illness, respiratory infection associated with air pollution and tick and mosquito-
borne disease (Grover, Brody & Vedlitz, 2017).
The climate change action plan was designed on October 19, 1993, which aimed to
reduce the greenhouse gas emission and 22 states, 550 cities, and 900 companies with operations
in the United States that have made climate commitments. However, the policy failed to address
the lack of equal access to health care services. The climate action for health have various
agenda such as active transportation in transition to zero-carbon transportation system, healthy
and sustainable farms, access to safe water drinking expect safe and affordable access to the
health care services for the population who experienced illness due to climate change
(climatehealthaction.org. 2020).
Affected population:

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Considering various states of the United States, young and older populations are at
higher risk of experiencing health issues associated with climate change (Hess et al., 2018). In
the US, an average of 658 people died per year due to excessive natural heat. Due to racial,
ethnic and geographic health disparities, the majority of the farmers died due to excessive heat or
respiratory infection as they lack access to health care (Www.apha.org., 2020).
State, local or national level:
Many survey reports on climate change suggested that coastal residents are excessively
confronting erosion and sea-level rise where young as well as old alike suffering from worsening
air pollution and at risk during heat waves.
Evidence of the issue:
Even though climate change policy implemented in 1993, 95% of deaths due to excess
heat observed amongst non-US citizens compared to 37% of the USA citizen in Arizona,
California, and Texas (Www.apha.org., 2020). Non-USA citizen is 20times more likely to die
compared to the USA citizen. These statistical data represent highly prevalent health inequalities
in terms of health care services and the presence of racial discrimination which USA federal and
state governments failed to address through climate change policy (Www.apha.org., 2020).
Create a problem statement:
Lack of access to health care services and racial discrimination increase mortality
associated with air policy and excessive heat which climate change policy failed to address.
Policy change initiation:
In order to reduce health care disparities, the possible suggestion is to track non-US
citizen deaths, implement interventions to reduce heat exposure along with the reduction of
health inequalities by reducing cultural and language barriers. The health care services can be

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provided as a part of the policy to ensure protection for the population who already impacted due
to climate change (Weinberger et al., 2017).
Stakeholders:
For initiating policy change, the stakeholders would be policymakers, federal, state and
local governing bodies, non-government and government agencies who are working on climate
change and health care professionals such as physicians, nurses, and social workers.
Discuss the impact on the health care delivery system:
Since the climate change policy lacks the agenda for providing affordable and safe care
access to the non-Us citizens and US citizens belong to low sociodemographic, new policy
change initiatives will positively impact the health care system. It will provide physicians with
an opportunity to early screen the impact of excessive heat and provide care irrespective of
gender, race, and ethnicity (Curtis et al., 2017). In this context, nursing professionals will be able
to develop advocacy for building health care delivery systems that provide access to every
citizen of the US. It will also provide nursing professionals to alter their professional values for
breaching language and cultural barriers and develop a health professional campaign that
supports the health care services for climate change and reduce the mortality rate.
Conclusion:
On a concluding note it can be said that while climate change policy aimed to reduce
greenhouse gas emission, it failed to provide access to the citizen affected due to climate change.
In this case, the policy change would be access to health care services to the population who are
affected due to climate change.

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References:
climatehealthaction.org. 2020. Retrieved 4 January 2020, from
https://climatehealthaction.org/media/cta_docs/PAA_OnePager.pdf
Curtis, S., Fair, A., Wistow, J., Val, D. V., & Oven, K. (2017). Impact of extreme weather events
and climate change for health and social care systems. Environmental Health, 16(1), 128.
Gergel, D. R., Nijssen, B., Abatzoglou, J. T., Lettenmaier, D. P., & Stumbaugh, M. R. (2017).
Effects of climate change on snowpack and fire potential in the western USA. Climatic
Change, 141(2), 287-299.
Grover, H., Brody, S. D., & Vedlitz, A. (2017). Understanding climate change risk perception in
the USA. International Journal of Global Warming, 13(2), 113-137.
Hess, J. J., Lm, S., Knowlton, K., Saha, S., Dutta, P., Ganguly, P., ... & Bhan, S. C. (2018).
Building Resilience to Climate Change: Pilot Evaluation of the Impact of India’s First
Heat Action Plan on All-Cause Mortality. Journal of Environmental and Public
Health, 2018.
Weinberger, K. R., Haykin, L., Eliot, M. N., Schwartz, J. D., Gasparrini, A., & Wellenius, G. A.
(2017). Projected temperature-related deaths in ten large US metropolitan areas under
different climate change scenarios. Environment international, 107, 196-204.
Www.apha.org. (2020). Retrieved 4 January 2020, from
https://www.apha.org/-/media/files/pdf/topics/climate/needs_assessment.ashx?
la=en&hash=029B821EF6EB26E013F877887ACF2FDA8E2D6E6A

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Www.apha.org. (2020). Retrieved 4 January 2020, from
https://www.apha.org/-/media/files/pdf/topics/climate/heat_related_deaths.ashx?
la=en&hash=2C87CFBF6E38A710EC27E607675DDD1ECAA477F6