Health policy analysis

Altman asserts that it may be part of an irreversible forward political step but it does not answer the basic questions such as; affordability, its stability in risk pools worse than insurers expected, whether people covered are satisfied or not and whether the enrolment to the plan will increase with the years. The obamacare policy ensures that all American citizens are covered by the health insurance premium regardless of their pre-existing medical conditions. Some political scholars, however, have pointed out that such policies are enacted by the politicians with their own motives in mind. Atlman’s fearful claim is addressed by Craig and Curtis (2008), that a policy may be put in place within a specified time frame in order for the ‘ actors’ to be seen doing something while in power but lacking in commitment in tackling the underlying issues. They argue that when a public agency is designing a new Medicaid program, the main decision-making goal is assessing the economic viability of the program, whether the proposed outlay will be cost-neutral or cost-effective. “ To be cost-neutral, the proposal must not increase the overall costs of the agency. To be cost-effective, the proposal must be the least costly method for reaching a pre-determined level if total benefits to the public” (Craig & Curtis 2008, p. 288).

The special interest lobbyist groups play an important role in influencing the policymakers by representing some groups of people in the society who feel like their interests are not being met. The Henry J. Kaisser Family Foundation, an online lobbying organization has played a crucial role in educating the public by criticizing Obamacare law. It has provided insight, public sensitization and raised awareness into the controversial health bill and provided a reference and learning material by outsourcing its tutorials which are archived and readily available for college students and professors via its websites free for download. An online article, Pearson (2010), defines an interest group as people organized with similar goals and try to push the political processes in achieving them. The article in exploring the impact of special interest groups insists that when the policymakers weaken to the demands of these groups, which happen to be many in number, they may result to government policies that are contradictory and lacking in direction since the lobbying groups represent the interests of small groups. There are ways in which special interest lobbyist groups can be controlled. Since they represent a smaller group of individuals, they do not give a picture of the needs of the general public. Therefore, their demands can be overlooked by policymakers. The other way is the government regulating the activities of the special interest groups by asking them to provide a detailed plan of their activities, their mission and making them available to the general public at all the time. A notable example is the Hobby Lobby case challenging the Department of Health and Human Services directive of ordering employers to offer health insurance policies that include contraceptives which goes against the business owners religious beliefs (Nelson, 2014). The Kansas anti-gay law as outlined by The Guardian (2014) has led lobbyists to feeling their constitutional rights of protection have been violated.