Changes in Congress Agenda over Time - Essay Example

Changes in Congress Agenda over Time affiliation Among the many policies the Congress has had to deal with is the policy of health. The health care policy is always formed in the midst of strong political consideration at the national level. Irrespective of the organization of the political systems or their level of success, the policies on numerous occasions are oriented towards cost containment. The health policy in the congress has become part of the macro politics the congressional representatives have to engage in almost every day of their legislative lives. This paper intends to discuss the policy trends of the health agenda and contrasts between scenarios of two nations to attain a clear perspective. The approach of this paper in measuring the political concerns to health care issues across time is drawing on the information provided by the Policy Agenda project. The policy agenda project employs the services of coders who are experts in categorizing political activities into mutually specialized topic areas. The health agenda is subdivided into 20 subtopics, which are among health care facilities, insurance access, and medical procedures among other divisions. In this volume, political activities over a 50-year period will be analyzed. The paper will make a comparison between Denmark and US and analyze the changing political attention levels to healthcare (Longley, 2007). The political attention will be measured on basis of the subjects discussed in parliamentary debates and questions presented by members of opposition to the government. Every citizen’s expectation is that relative concerns to healthcare have increased along with the rising demand for healthcare services. It is indeed true that through time the political attention on the policy of health care have increased tremendously in both political systems, i.e. in Denmark and in the US. The state of affairs can be attributed to the politicians’ interest to serve the public to appease them that in future they might stand chances for considerations during voting. Careful examination of the overall progress in political attention to healthcare across time shows a gradual increase in the levels of the congress attention to the healthcare policy. The level of concern given to healthcare policy in both the US and the Denmark political systems ranged from 1.5 to 4 percent. This occurrence was with respect of the form of activities that were being carried out by both political institutions. By the year 2002, the level of attention given to the healthcare policy relative to other agendas in both political systems had increased by an average of 350%. There was a steady change and increase in interest of the policy in the US than in Denmark (Diermeier, Godbout, Yu, & Kaufmann, 2012). The difference between the two systems which practically had almost equal levels of interest in the health policy only suggest that there had unique elements in each system that requires further scrutiny. However, there are also commendable correspondences across the two distinct systems bearing different strategies in policy procedures and success in control of healthcare costs. The Congress in particular has not only been forced to respond to rising cost challenges and demands but also issues concerning the deliverance of efficient and quality services to the public. A value of zero after calculation suggests that the activity during a specific period concentrated on a single topic among the possible twenty. A value of three suggests that the Congress gave adequate attention to all the 20 topics of health care. The data analysis confirms that the Congress gave more attention to the health policy in periods that begun in the late 1960s and continued; this is the period where major developments and explosion of innovations and the rise of costs begin. The issue of innovation did not only increase the concerns of the Congress but also the development of more complex political issues. All the data results reflect biennial developments relevant to the US Congress. As it can be analyzed from the data, the policy choices the Congress made within its framework had observable implications on the health concerning health issue. There is a notable contrast between the strategy and form of attention given by the Danish politicians compared to the attention strategy given by the US Congress on the health issue. The Danish political leaders have given much attention construction of hospitals and availing procedures. On the other hand, the US Congress puts more devotion on regulation of payments to medical liability, provider, and access and health insurance coverage. The Congress does this over the period of 1971-2000. Due to the present state of the health care in the US, the policy of health is always close to the minds of the congressional representatives. The ever rising costs of healthcare services continues to put pressure on politicians and budgets along with the global competiveness of the American industry which is of vital concern to the Congress. The Congress consequently has continued to make ways and means to check the situation of rising costs of medical services. For instance, the prescription drug benefit of the year 2003 was the most significant move concerning the issue of the healthcare policy. The Congress has lately prioritized the policy of health to better serve the US citizens. The case of the Danish legislative strategies the effectiveness of decentralized systems of control in local levels as it was very effective in addressing the problem of controlling cost. As discussed herein the paper gives a comparative politics perception that examines how the policy setting of matters impact political decisions across legislative structures. The examination of the health care related attention over fifty years reveals commendably remarkable and similar trends across two political structures. The overall conclusion as revealed by careful analysis of data from the Policy Agenda project shows that the Congress devotion to the health policy has since the early 1960 tripled or quadrupled. This commendable trend can be attributed to the policies’ attractiveness to present the congressional representatives with higher consideration during voting processes (Hallows, 2014). The rapidly growing demand for better healthcare services has also compelled the Congress to take the health policy with adequate consideration and create a boundary between satisfying the voters and the countries’ expenditure. The overall increase in congress and other legislatives in taking the health care policy as an issue of vital concern were driven by electorally based imperatives. NB:This graph records the attention of the congress in percentage form with respect to how all issues are given priority. Take note of the trend of the attention given to the health agenda NB: The above graph records the level of attention given to different matters concerning the state.Take note of the health agenda given very high levels of attention over the years. References Diermeier, D., Godbout, J.-F., Yu, B., & Kaufmann, S. (2012). Language and Ideology in Congress. British Journal of Political Science. doi:10.1017/S0007123411000160 Hallows, K. M. (2014). It’s All Enumerative: Reconsidering Library of Congress Classification in US Law Libraries. LAW LIBRARY JOURNAL, 106, 85–99. Longley, K. (2007). Congress and the Cold War. Diplomatic History. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7709.2007.00652.x Read More