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Question: I have an assignment to pick a health policy and to a policy analysis.

My topic is "issues that arise due to an aging population" medical conditions that will arise, living longer and assisted living, the workforce depletion, healthcare costs will rise, etc. the policy that is attached to this issue is the "Prevention and Healthcare Fund". I believe prevention through education and motivating each individual to remain as healthy as possible is most important, because doing this affects and decreases the negative impact of these issues. My instructions are to pick a policy, pick an issue, and write a policy analysis. I am to identify key stakeholders, provide 3 to 5 options to consider, inform pros and cons of each and apply each criterion to all my options. I am confused about the options. What do the options mean is it the education, the rising healthcare costs. Can you please help me.
Do I need to change policys?
Thank you
Kim Helton
kimandherdog@bellsouth.net
Answer: Pending 04/20/2014 Hi Kim, Thanks for writing to the Tool Box. Sounds like a challenging assignment. And you are well on your way to answering it. The assignment seems to be to do a policy analysis which does not necessarily mean changing policies but rather analyzing the options. You could decide to propose policies to encourage physicians seeing aging patients to promote health and then discuss policy options – have insurance companies put down mandates vs providing financial incentives if the MD promotes health etc. The following sections of the Tool Box may help. /en/table-of-contents/advocacy/advocacy-research/influence-policy/main What do we mean by conducting research to influence policy? Why conduct research to influence policy? Who should conduct research to influence policy? When should you conduct research to influence policy? How do you approach conducting research to influence policy? Thanks for writing to us and we hope this helps.
Question Date: Sun, 04/20/2014