This week I want to talk more about health policy and how it relates to healthcare management. I think the Policy aspect of public health is often overlooked and or forgotten about. In my health policy class this week, we looked at a case known as "Monique's Case". To summarize her story, she was a 2-year old girl who had very poor living conditions because of led paint, mold, and bed bugs. On top of this, she had asthma, could not get Medicaid because her mother could not take work off to renew the paperwork, and he mother had very little income in addition to the fact that the father did not pay child support and was a violent substance abuser. Unfortunately, there are many families living in situations like these in cities all around us. We focused on Manchester, NH in this case.
After looking over the New Hampshire State Improvement Plan (SHIP) I was able to see how many of New Hampshire's plans to improve health priorities could relate back to Monique and her family. Creating policies and improving just a few things under each problem can make a world of difference for so many. Some of NH SHIP's health priorities were substance abuse, maternal and child health and asthma. Any programs within these boundaries that could help improve the quality of life for people like Monique is very important because it gives Monique and her family the chance to use these programs that were not inlace before. Manchester also put many programs into place such as Neighborhood Improvement Plans and social workers in school that spoke multiple languages and could help speak with children about healthcare and Medicaid. These policies being implemented in the state are what is needed to improve quality of life for these young children and help make managing health care a bit easier. Without the policies in place, more and more people will slip into these poor living conditions and bad health because they have no other option.
A few students and I were able to sit in on a video conference with second and third year law students who discussed this same case. One student brought up an interesting point that there is actually a law that claims the landlord Tennant must make the apartment livable and if it is inhabitable; contains mold, poor air and water quality, etc. then there must be changes made. I found this very interesting as did one of my professors because this policy is in place to maintain good health and living conditions. However, many people do not know about it and continue to suffer in these situations. It is policies like these that must be implemented, promoted, and executed to help improve managing health care and healthy living conditions as a whole. Promoting policies so that the community knowns about them for their own health and safety is essential.
All very valid and accurate points. The never-ending challenge is, "OK those are all worthwhile goals ... now who is going to pay for it?" One way to sell your policy to lawmakers (who ultimately pass the legislation and who also control the public purse-strings) is to use data showing how spending $X on preventive/primary care will reduce the need to spend $XXX on interventional/restorative care. Your vignette shows the value of coordinating proposed health policy with existing law. In this case, the landlords are responsible.
ReplyDeleteAs you move through your educational and practicum experiences, try to notice how many successful healthcare managers exist in informational silos, and how many continually cultivate a network of informed professionals from many fields. I can almost predict the outcome.
Hi Kayli,
ReplyDeleteHealth Policy is so important right now, it is great that you are learning about it. Two interesting topics I think you would be interested in:
1) Massachusetts currently has a policy that in order for a homeless family to be eligible to stay in a shelter, they have to prove that they stayed 24 hrs somewhere not habitable. Because documentation is needed, most families end up going to the Emergency Department to stay overnight, often just for shelter and not for health care. While we are able to care for them, it poses difficulty in the winter months when the ED is full with flu patients and the hospital is at capacity with beds. Our social workers work tirelessly to connect these families with shelters but this is one example of how policy can have downward stream effects.
2. The recent actions to repeal the ACA: this recent article gives great insight into how people with preexisting conditions would lose greatly if ACA were to be repealed, using the example of Jimmy Kimmel's son: http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/20/politics/jimmy-kimmel-son-graham-cassidy/index.html