Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Description and Policy Analysis: Chapters 9 & 10
Objective: What is Policy Analysis?
Policy recommendations, or simply written policy advice, are the key means through which policy decisions are made in most levels of government.
Whether the policy recommendation is accepted as sound or dismissed in favor of another option largely depends on how well the issue and the arguments justifying the recommended course of action are presented.
POLICY ANALYSIS defines the problem and the goals, examines the arguments, and analyzes implementation of the policy.
ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES (10%):
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Description and analysis. For this assignment the students are stimulated to deeply and acutely describe and investigate why the Patient Protection and Affordable Act Passed and all their implication in the Health Care environment.
The paper will be 4-5 pages long. Each paper must be typewritten with 12-point font and double-spaced with standard margins. Follow APA format when referring to the selected articles and include a reference page.
EACH PAPER SHOULD INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:
1. Defining the Problem (10%)
What is the problem to be addressed?
What was the event or series of events that was a catalyst for action?
Is it a problem or crisis that demands immediate attention?
Is the problem one of national security, economic development, diplomacy?
What interests are at stake for the actor (e.g.state) overall?
2. Establishing goals: (20%)
How will you translate the aforementioned problem in to a specific set of goals? What is the relationship between those goals and the problem that was identified? What government-non-government organizations are involved in making this decision? Which ones are not involved?
3. Selecting a policy (20%). Based on your research and understanding of the situation, select a policy, and consider the following:
What other alternatives were considered?
Why were the other alternatives rejected? For rational or political reasons? Describe the tradeoffs policy makers must accept based on your selection–what tradeoffs do policy makers see as inherent in the selected policy?
4. Implementing a policy (20%)
What agency or organization implemented the policy? Was the policy implemented according to original design?
Has the agency changed or skewed the policy to reflect its own interests and goals? Which changes were made from the original design and why are they important?
In your opinion, could another agency have implemented the policy better?
5. Evaluating the policy (20%)
Did the policy achieve its goals?
Did the policy solve the original problem? Or did the policy solve a different problem that the one originally identified?
What were the costs and consequences of the policy?
Did the policy achieve its goals at a reasonable cost?
Overall, was the policy a “success “or a “failure”
Evaluation will be based on how clearly you respond to the above, in particular:
a) The precision with which you analyses the articles;
b) The complexity, possibility, and organization of your paper; and,
c) Your conclusions, including a description of the impact of these articles and Chapters on any Health Care Setting.
