Indiana University Health Policy Analysis Report, Summer 2019

This report analyzes US health policies, particularly focusing on their impact on women and minority groups. It addresses the increasing prevalence of chronic illnesses like diabetes, obesity, and cancer within these populations, emphasizing the need for policy analysis to improve access to healthcare. The report examines existing policies, identifies gaps in coverage and care, and proposes measures for quality improvement. It explores the historical, political, ethical, and economic perspectives of the policies, the stakeholders involved, and the consequences of inadequate policies. The analysis includes disease trends, advocacy frameworks, and evaluation methods, offering a comprehensive overview of the healthcare landscape and advocating for policy changes to promote health equity and improve the standard of living for women and minority groups. The report also includes references to relevant research and data sources.

C
INDIANA UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
NURSING/HSAD 614
HEALTH POLICY AND ADVOCACY
SUMMER 2019
YOUR NAME:

Key
Points:
Abstract:
 Over the last few years,
there has been an
increase in the
prevalence of chronic
illness disorders such as
Diabetes Type II, Obesity,
Breast Cancer and
Cardiovascular diseases.
 This suggests there is a
need to conduct policy
analysis so as to improve
access to health services
for a better standard of
living for the women and
the minority group.
The research intends to evaluate the existing policies within the
U.S Healthcare System so as to improve standards of care for
women and the minority groups within the nation. The U.S
healthcare policies that have been developed for women and the
minority groups primarily focus on improving accessibility to
care, increasing health coverage, affordability and utilization of
support services within the complete population base. However, it
is pivotal to analyze the policies in order to identify gaps and
adapt measures for quality improvement.

Advocacy or Policy Problem
in Rural Area:
Statement of the problems/description:
The evidence base suggests that a number of initiatives have been taken in order to
improve access to healthcare services for women and the minority population groups
across the United STATES. However, the state of welfare has remained uncertain in terms
of access and quality to care services. This suggests that there is a need to evaluate the
existing policies in order to determine the degree of effectiveness.

Advocacy or Policy Problem
in Rural Area:
Why you/your group selected the problem:
The group selected to focus on the problem comprises of women and the minority groups.
The rationale for the same includes increased prevalence of fatal disorders such as breast
cancer , cervical cancer, cardiovascular diseases and arthritis. Also, lack of appropriate
access to care facilities and coverage have been identified as a key problem in these
groups of population.

Advocacy or Policy:
 The policy studies in this context includes the U.S health policy that concerns the
wellbeing of the women and the minority groups.
 The U.S healthcare policies concerning healthcare and wellness aim at improving
access to healthcare services and assuring an affordable range of care services so as
to support consumers.

Background:
The US healthcare policies provide a uniform coverage to the systems through a
multiplayer health coverage fund
In accordance to a research report published in 2014, it was suggested that 48% of the
fund was funded privately and 28% was funded from households and private business
enterprises. The expenditure of the federal government was estimated to be 28% and
that of local government was estimated to be 17% (Oliveira et al., 2019).
89.6% of the U.S citizens have healthcare coverage and66% are insured privately.
Approximately, 36.5% depend on the government for coverage (Oliveira et al., 2019).
A total of 77.5% coverage has been accounted to women’s welfare but in reality 2.9
million people lack any health care coverage.

Prevalence:
The evidence base suggests that United Nations spends a total of 16.4% GDP for health
coverage
This can be considered equivalent to 8.9% per citizen which is highest among the other
nations of the world (Makary & Daniel, 2016).
This reflects that the government is concerned about the health and wellbeing of the
citizens
However, care has been prioritized for the aged population and the wellbeing for the
women and the minority groups has remained overlooked.
Women and minority groups that include Hispanic and Asian families have substantially
lower coverage by almost 64.5% (Williams & Collins, 2016).

Consequences of the
problem:
Lack of appropriate policies and coverage have led to the increase of a number of
disorders such as pregnancy, Type II Diabetes, Obesity, sexually transmitted diseases and
ovarian cancer
There has been a significant rise in reports pertaining to domestic violence.
There is an increased need to incorporate reforms that would help in promoting positive
healthcare outcomes among the targeted audience.

Scope and duration of
problem:
The scope of the problem is to conduct policy analysis so as to develop effective
measures in order to ensure health and wellness of the women and the minority groups.
This would help in improving access to care and at the same time alleviate the standard
of living for the mentioned population groups.
The research data from the previous years suggest a hike in the rate of violence and
crimes against ethnic minority groups that include, African Americans, Hispanics, Middle
East community members and Asians (Rubinsak et al., 2019) Also, the prevalence of
vascular diseases, Diabetes and Cancer has risen among women and ethnic minority
groups over the past 5 years. This suggests there is a need to put on better efforts to
address the scenario.

Disease trends among the
women and minority group:
Fig: Disease prevalence in US women
(Source: Falkner & Cossrow, 2014)
Fig: Disease trend among ethnic
minority
(Source: Hutchinson & Shin, 2014)

Framework for advocacy of
policy issue:
The framework that would be used to promote wellbeing for the U.S citizens would
include the Health Equity Policy Analysis Framework. The Policy framework focuses on
the three integral aspects that comprise of implementation of a change within the
policy, promoting a change within the institutional level and building a capacity for the
community.

Theoretical underpinning of
the policy: