Politics of the Clinton Health Plan - Research Paper Example

? Politics of the Clinton Health Plan Pros and cons of the three approaches In the first approach, is advantageous to thebeneficiaries as the small group selected would be a representation of the general public. This wound ensures the needs of the beneficiaries are addressed. However, it is limited in scope as the group may tend to address issues that may be related to them. This would the case for example in a group of politicians who would opt for policies that’s suit their needs first. They would sway everything to their favor. The second approach is an essential approach in its implementation. It is essential in that when it comes to soliciting funding, the various groups can easily aid in achieving such goals. It involves open minded groups as it constitutes different group form different departments. The groups are well organized with plenty of resources at their disposal. However, it has vast constraints as well. There is a possibility of reliance on them by an agency to develop and achieve their selfish gains. There are also chances that the groups that will be involved will most probably initiate policies that are in line with their claims. They also make it difficult for the supposed beneficiaries to directly benefit as they are perceived as the worst constituents of such groups. The third approach, the Clinton approach, this approach creates rationality in decisions making something that would enable the understanding of various policy proposals. In such an approach there is possibility of research coming from various dimensions including the most credible research sources. This is an integral approach in that it would involve both the most political feasible and the least political feasible. However, there are chances that the researches by the researchers would become self fulfilling prophecies in case they do not use the analyses wisely. 2. The map of bill Clinton authorizing environment for the health care reform In authorizing environment an independent health board would be created to certify the health insurance plans as well as establishing the basic services that would be covered by those plans. It will be mandatory for the employers to provide coverage to their full time employees. The employers would also be required to offer an insurance cover for the part time employees in form a of a business tax. The health insurance purchasing cooperatives would offer coverage for the business employees who have fewer than a hundred employees as well as those individuals who had not been covered through work or the federal entitlement programs, the health insurance purchasing cooperatives would chip in. business or people who opt for more expensive plans would have provide for the differences. 3. Policy streams Through the problem stream the problem that was existed was realized. This problem stream purports that the understanding of the people’s problems need to be supported by basic science (Curtis & Craig, 2000). This stream enables people to share a common definition of what a problem is. This thus opened an opportunity for health care reform after the individuals involves realized that there vast underlying issues in the health care that called for reformation. The policy stream enables the creation of credible and scientific technological solutions available to deal with the underlying issues. Through the political stream the problem was put on the agenda and served with the urgency and the seriousness it deserved. This created the need for the issue to deal with from a political perspective where it would be easier to reap the political benefits. The three streams created windows of opportunity assisting on whether the benefits or the costs of the policies are diffuse of concentrated. The streams were involved in the policy change process and in building collaboration across several policy arenas. During this period there was increased number of juridical disputes concerning the Clintons plan. This made it difficult for any kind of initiatives including the three streams. On the political stream, the democrats were more concerned with projects that were in the dimension of a republican future. The republicans had also ganged up against any Clinton plans and they were not willing to compromise with any of his proposal outright. This made it difficult for the democrats to develop a clear strategy to move the bill through the various committees without collaboration with the republican. This resulted to the heath reform plan taking a tedious and messy path through various committee hearings. The stakeholder support that had initially appeared to back the bill began to crumble down. The development of AMA expressed reservations on the Clinton plan and they finally rescanned the essential support. Medical inflation had begun slowing an indication that Clinton had failed to deliver. The poll that was conducted by the ABC News was used as leverage by many and it thus created more worries for the proposed plan. This created a tough ground to even lead the modest of reform bills, something that resulted to the universal coverage legislation. This ended any discussions on any health care legislation. The eventual blow happened when support to the health care reform was removed by George Mitchell, regarding it as officially dead. 4. Force field analysis of the health security plan A situation is created between balances of two forces the reinforcing and the opposing forces. In this case they do not indicate whether the idea is good or bad, but indicate the difficulty or ease in which the change can occur. In recent years it has been used for planning goal achievement plans. It presents the user with a chance to weigh on the pro and cons of decisions before making a final move. The methods against the proposal change are analyzed and evaluated according to the researchers’ preferences. The Clintons force filed would have people who are for the change and those who are not in for the change. The forces would be as illustrated in the table below: Reinforcing Forces opposing Forces People for change People against change Values for change Values against change Structures for change Programs against change Benefits for change Benefits of no change Other oppose of change would be the republicans who were against any advancement in the progress of the bill. Factors such as the inflation and the increased rates of problems in the health care would be used as leverage against any form of development (Daft, 2011). History of the health care system would not serve in the same direction for change as the expected benefits. History would act against the reformation and would be used to critique any progress. 5. Health security proposal on the grid The health care reform proposal would fall under the least political feasible solutions due to the entrepreneur politics that surrounds the policy. The benefits of the health care reform would be shared so broadly among the beneficiaries. This would chase away all the advocated and individuals who would have supported it for their self interest. It would also bear great opposition from those parties who believe they would be highly affected by the concentrated costs. There would be a high level of winners and losers if the reform was to materialize. This would thus create high conflicts between the rein-forcers and the opposers. There are vast concentrate costs and benefits that can be identified from the health security proposal. Some of the benefits include the employee benefits that would have their health care need comprehensively covered by their employers (Rigolosi, 1996). This would benefit both the employees and their families the other benefits will be the insurance firms who would take advantage of the existing scenario to better their gains. The most common lobbers of the government are the interest groups which lobby the many and redistribute it amongst the pope who face concentrated benefits and diffused costs. The employers would be hard hit by this benefits as they would be the ones to incur tee extra cost that are perceived by the employees (Daft, 2011). They would have to cover for both the permanent and the partial employees. The benefits will thus be accrued to the government and the employers and the extra costs will be diffused by the employees. This would thus make it difficult for the employers as the costs are evenly distributed something that would make it difficult for them to lobby and organize. The costs will be diffused between the taxpayers who form a very large number of individuals, thus the taxes they pay would be very tiny. The health security proposal will this be highly diffused that it will not be worth the cost to organize people against it. In this case the success of the proposal will be down to the capacity of individuals to manipulate the government to detriment other individuals. 6. Using the Delphi technique Delphi technique is a practical and cost effective means in forecasting outcomes in the health care system. They are essential in developing accurate professional consensus and information. They are thus essential in priority setting and developing guidelines in health care related researches (Rowe &Wright, 1999). They are also comprehensive and reliable tools in synthesis individual judgments in a structured, replicable and transparent ways. Since it is more focused and potent in providing knowledge in area where knowledge is wanting. In the case of the Clinton proposal, I would have conducted one to one interviewers with the patients and the care givers. I would also have opted for conferences and any other forms of structured interviews to unveil the information that they think would be essential in steering the health care sector to the right direction. Through concentrating on patients and care givers who are the most affected by the reforms in the sector, I would seek their opinions to forecast on possible changes in the health care practices. The Delphi method would be essential as more information would be discovered concerning the health care which may not be known to the public (Rowe &Wright, 1999). Though there would be need to have planned changes and reforms in the sector, the urge to forecast on future direction cannot be undermined. References Curtis, P., & Craig, D. (2000). Health Policy Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Approach by McLaughlin. London: Rutledge. Daft, R. (2011). Understanding management. Mason, OH: Southwestern cengage learning. Rigolosi, E. (1996). The humanistic nursing process. Boston, Mass,: Jones and Bartlett. Rowe, G, &Wright, G. (1999). The Delphi technique as a forecasting tool: Issues and analysis, International Journal of Forecasting, 15, p.353-375. Read More