Obama Care and Contraceptive Policy - Literature review Example

Topic for research Name Professor Institution Course Date Part 2: Lens Analysis. Rationale analysis is the first theoretical lenses which will help us to understand the Obama care and contraceptive policy. It is the best approach of analyzing cognitive individual behavior. Anderson proposes that this method will depend highly on Obama care and contraceptive policy instead of trying to solve the problems that are facing the Americans. On the other hand, group analysis is the second model that is used to analyze the mentality or thinking of people. It is mainly used by people so that they may be able to understand how different groups of people may perceive and understand what is happening around them or within their society. In the rationale approach, Anderson optimizes the use of the policy in accordance to the behavior of people of America. In explaining what he meant he quoted ``Marr’’. Anderson implied that many policymakers had confused the analysis of their policies with the mechanism analysis due to availability of signature information. Indeed, there is in variation of the policy in measuring its performance on how it is going to benefit the society entirely. In light of lens analysis, it is deemed that the Obama administration has manipulated the rights of religious people particularly Catholics citing the contraceptive and abortion policy. This is because they have tried to conserve the politics due to the enforcement of affordable health care act and again, it is essential when designing a policy to maintain and establish strong collaboration with other sectors. According to Anderson, it is clear that the rights of people have been restricted; freedom of nature of the people of America has been limited. The policy is against some fundamental Christian principles and requires them to be adopted in their hospitals and institutions. The opportunity that the policy has brought to the Americans is that; the president and his policy makers are able to make a viable decision because they are in position to understand not only the thoughts of the American people but also problems facing them. As a result, they have found a way through which they may solve the problem. The problem facing the people is on how to control birth and abortions which can be solved by implementing “Obamacare” policy. Lens analysis also proposes establishment of impacts between health, the policy area under focus and gathering evidence-based solutions. The health is the real problem being addressed by the policy. If the problem is well pursued, policymakers are required to produce informed policy recommendations and final report which is acceptable to different partner agencies. The recommendations can be steered through different decision making a process hence helps to eliminate unnecessary friction in the policy implementation. In our case, Obama health care policy, it is evident that this factor was assumed or pursued in inadequacy. The main mechanism of the policy is supposed to be represented by putting into consideration critical factors that may affect how the policy is to be carried out. The factors should be considered whether they are in parallel or in serial mechanism in processing the policy although it is not significant for it to be considered directly to the ``Obamacare’’ policy (Crawford et al, 1969). Policy makers for the Affordable Health Care Act should put into consideration the cost that will be incurred in enacting the rule alongside how it will affect the Americans, whether positively or negatively or if it has internal or external effects. It is also paramount to consider the desired outcomes and if they relate to the set goals and objectives to provide a universal health care policy for a wider group of Americans. The insurance consent is also crucial in the design of Obama health care policy. In fact, without it the reform of the law of envisions will end. The policy restricts the insurance firms from considering risks to the amount to be paid on monthly basis. So this will mean that the healthy Americans not need any insurance unless they are sick. So the insurance firms will not be able to get any finances from the healthy people. Actually, policymakers should have at first considered what the republican were facing before the enactment of the policy. It is also important to understand how the policy was going to interfere with the lifestyles of the American people (Crawford et al, 1969) A major weakness with Obama Affordable Health care policy is that it is highly influenced by the law. This is because during the implementation of the policy the government did not seek ideas of the people. Also, the prices kept on hiking and people could not take any action just because the aim of the president is to bridge the gap between unemployment (Bachrach et al, 1963). A thorough analysis of the Obama’s Affordable Health Care plan reveals that the policy does not give a measure of any importance. As a matter of fact, it really shows the density, restriction, and power of the aim of the policy. The policy does not put into consideration how it is going to affect the minorities. Notably, it has also influenced the standard of living of many Americans. It assumed its effect on the people in the way it was restricting the Roman Catholic’s the freedom of religion. It is worth stating that this policy has posed a major challenge to its peoples’ self-governance. It has brought about the problem of cost controls and the way it regulates the health sector. It has also raised the concerns of the constitution in that citizen’ rights and fundamental moral values are at the risk of being violated. To realize a cohesive society, group analysis in this subject is particularly significant. This is to bring harmony and consensus on this highly disputed Obama health care policy. While the policy design may not have taken into consideration variant social components like religious establishments or people rights, the common people have an influence on the law. In particular, a diverse array of alternatives may be championed in the attempt to achieve consensus on the affordable health care policy. For instance, since the Catholic Church is not ready to water their fundamental teachings, this call upon Obama administration to first hear the views of the citizens. Part 3: Design of Implementation and Evaluation Plan Policy implementation is the stage in policy processing where the real action of the policy takes place to address the identified problem. For the Obama Health care policy to be effective and efficient, there are some factors that should be addressed (Schick, 1971). Firstly, political issues raised by many policymakers in processing of the policy have been a great stumbling block. Indeed, the policy is faced by the problem of diverse politics. Therefore, policymakers should bear in mind the challenges they are likely to face in the implementation of the policy. The implementation criterion of the policy will highly depend on five factors. These are: engagements, evidence gathering, generating relevant recommendations, navigation and evaluation. To begin, an engagement refers to involving different partners in the policy process. This establishes and enhances firm collaborative relationships in the attempt to find viable policy options. This was a vital step in the design of the Obama health care policy in order to eliminate unnecessary friction ahead like infringing people’s rights. With a sound policy focus, it is always significant to establish impacts between the problem and policy area under focus alongside evidence-based solutions. This is another implementation criterion for consideration. In practice, this approach tends to map the scope of the identified problem with practical solutions. When this step is properly implemented it increases changes of any policy to succeed by being accepted by majority. The last approach in this step is to avail informed policy recommendations and final report agreed upon by different stakeholders. Policymakers then steer the recommendations through a decisive decision making process to represent ideas of different sectors. Finally, the effectiveness of the policy plan is determined. This represents a sound implementation method for the Obama health care policy. Although there are so many people engaged in the implementation of the contraceptive and abortion coverage notably referred as “Obamacare”, the right implementation mechanism is largely inevitable in order to succeed. A major breakthrough is to counter and bring harmony among those rejecting certain clauses of the policy through encouraging democratic participation. For instance, catholic believers have to be taken on board by taking in to consideration their genuine grievances and again the large American community who have raised their concerns. As a result, a critical step in the implementation of the policy is to find a consensus on what is best for the society as a foundation of any positive development. Another implementation break through is to ensure specificity and clarity of policy goals. In fact, it is not clear if the policy goals are based on the social or political factors. Secondly, the policy was hugely affected by misinformation and lack of strategic planning (Schick, 1971). For the president to implement this policy, he should have considered the society indeed. A more lucid and coherent system would be applied in the formulation of the policy. In my own view, the problem of healthcare should not be addressed in small pieces but it should be considered as a whole. As a matter of fact, Obama care policy should have considered policy design discussed by Daniel Patrick Moynihan in his essay on policy vs. program in 1970s (Cronbach et al, 1980). Such step is essential since the government is responsible for the effectiveness, validity and efficiency of the policy. Policy evaluation is a critical endeavor which is always inevitable. It is important to be undertaken to establish program effectives, quality, costs, goal attainment, and impact in the society. This is also another policy implementation strategy which can instill some sense and reality in the undertaking. Evaluation is necessary so that it may be well understood whether the policy has attained its set goals, impact or the expected outcome. In addition, it helps to determine if the implemented policy is performing well. There are four approaches that may be used to evaluate the performance of the Obama Health care policy namely; cost benefit analysis, process evaluation, outcome evaluation, and impact of evaluation (Cronbach et al, 1980). Cost benefit analysis can be used to evaluate the contraceptives and abortion policy. It will compare all the cost related to the policy with the benefits generated. In addition, it can include the tangible costs in order to minimize the welfare of the policy. This approach will be effective to use because the policy is evaluated in terms of shadow costs as well as contrast and quantify the policy. Intangible cost in this policy is the cost which is brought by the increase in the cost of the health care as in the Obama care Health policy though intangible costs are not easy to measure. Another implementation strategy is to consider whether the policy addresses its target population, in this case, low income earners in America and on how to control abortion on young girls. In fact, a policy can only be successful if it is relevant to the group in which it is implemented. Also, policymakers should consider the effects of the policy on the target group whether positive or negative. Considering the different views and concerns raised regarding Obama health care policy, it is true that the problem has not been addressed. It is unfortunate that other concerns of national significance arose in the midst of solving another national issue. It would less alarming if the government had not pushed for a mandatory insurance policy. The rule could only require those who need insurance policy to have but not to make it a must. Also the government was supposed to educate its people on the importance of having private insurance and they way to avoid abortion among young girls. This could be a better way of solving the problem. References Allison, G. (1971). Essence of the decision: explaining the Cuban missile crisis.Boston. Little Brown. Bachrach ,p. and Baratz, m.(1963).Decision and undecision: An Analytic Framework.American political sciences review,57. Crawford,E. and Biderman,A. (1969).Social sciencists and international Affairs. New York. Wiley. Cronbach, L. and Associates.(1980). Toward reform of gram evaluation: Aims, Methods, and Institutional Arrangements.San Francisco. Jossey-Bass. Schick, A.(1971).From analysis to evaluation: Annals of the American Academy of the Political and social sciences. 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