Future Direction for Healthcare Policy Makers

The globe’s health care is complex. American health care is said to be arguably the most complex in the globe. As a result, modifications within the sector are slow. Numerous factors are comprised in enforcing and implementing modification in the healthcare sector. Slow-to-change and complex policies are an obvious spectacle, but technological and environmental factors also contribute to modifications in the healthcare sector. Doctor demographics, illness trends, and technology also contribute to changes in the entire healthcare system. With the evolution of society, healthcare needs are naturally evolving. Reforms in the healthcare sector have been proposed but rarely accomplished. For people to enjoy maximum health, they ought to have the advantage of high-quality healthcare services that are efficiently coordinated within a robust public health system. In regarding the purpose of the healthcare sector in guaranteeing global health, the entire healthcare firms, public, and private professional groups ought to adopt as their clear purpose to continuously decline the burden of injury, illness, and disability and to augment the functioning and health of the people. The healthcare sector comprises a range of hospitals, clinicians, and other healthcare facilities, healthcare service purchasers, insurance plans, all operating in different configurations of networks, groups, and independent practices (Fuchs, 2020). With the current changes in the atmosphere and with the outbreak of new illnesses, there is bound to be a change in the entire healthcare sector.

Various aspects will happen in the next five or so coming years. Together with technological and policy changes, individuals offering healthcare are also changing. Providers are a significant part of the healthcare sector and any modifications to their satisfaction, education, or demographics are expected to affect the mode patients attain care. In the next five years, healthcare providers are expected to focus their education mainly on business. There are various questions that healthcare policymakers ought to ask themselves. One of the vital questions is if there are attainable health policies that will decline the yearly health care expenditure increase yet at the same time augment access to care, reduce inequities and improve quality. That will be among one of the direction that the healthcare system will focus on in the next five years. With the current economic issues associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, healthcare policymakers will focus on how healthcare will be accessible at a lower cost, be improved, and of quality, and ensure that it is accessible to all despite economic situations (de Campos-Rudinsky, & Undurraga, 2021). That will be a key direction that healthcare policymakers will focus on in the next years. Feasible approaches likely must also choose the choice that the majority of individuals repeatedly hold is significant to them. Additionally, another direction for the healthcare policymakers will be the assimilation of technology in the healthcare sector.

The decisions that will be implemented in the next five years will ensure technology rules. As illustrated by the Covid-19 pandemic, technology is vital in healthcare. During the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, touching an infected patient was a gateway to death. In developed countries, technology was used to diagnose, monitor, and also aid in communication. The healthcare policymakers in the next five years will make decisions of how technology will be entirely assimilated in the sector. Additionally, deliberations will be made as to how technology will be utilized to effectively monitor, offer communication and transmit data regarding patients while ensuring it does not spread illness among patients and healthcare providers. The use of technology in the healthcare sector will greatly improve the sector and will help reduce the deaths of healthcare providers. Additionally, those decisions will be vital as technology is key in identifying issues with a patient (Peek, Sujan, & Scott, 2020). That will signify that with technology utilization in the healthcare sector, patients will be monitored closely and their status transmitted to the healthcare providers on time to help save lives.

Trends in healthcare technology focus mainly on patient empowerment. The decisions to fully accept technology in the healthcare system will lead to patient empowerment. With the new technologies focused mainly on research, healthcare availability, and monitoring, patients will be capable of taking a more active part in their care. The future of the healthcare sector lies in technological advancement. Additionally, the healthcare policymakers will make is how technology experts will work with healthcare providers to offer quality healthcare. Technology is liable to fail in times of need or even malfunction and that could lead to more harm transferred to patients. Healthcare policymakers will be focused on making decisions that outline the period that technological devices should function in any public or private healthcare facility. Another direction that the policymakers will focus on is uniting technological firms to work together to develop devices that offer the best services to patients (Fuchs, 2020). Convincing competitors to work together will be a difficult aspect and policymakers will be left with making laws that favor all technological companies.

The various technological firms vary in size and scope and the laws that the healthcare policymakers will make will need to favor all technological firms. A key change or direction of the healthcare sector is government spending. With many people approaching retirement in the next five years, the spending by governments in local, state, and federal governments is bound to surge. If governments continue to reduce the health premiums for those in low-income populations that increased government spending will hugely affect the whole healthcare system. That implies that there might also be a shift in the healthcare provider. With the numerous solutions being proposed being possible, some might be reliant on regulations and others might be market-based, some might prioritize population wellness and health and others might focus on innovation in cures and technology. All those will need difficult choices, prioritization, and compromise. However, a key direction that healthcare policymakers will need to trend carefully is spending (Jazieh, & Kozlakidis, 2020). In the next few years, spending will not be an aspect that healthcare policymakers will focus more on as it is not an effective approach.

Another direction that policymakers will focus on is research and innovation. With the current increase in cardiovascular illness deaths and cardiovascular disease mortality and morbidity prevalence, the sustained increased prevalence of obesity in the world, the continuing epidemic of opioid-associated deaths, with considerable differences by ethnicity, urbanization extent, and race, healthcare policymakers will be confronted with the issue of if they are addressing the health of its populace effectively and spending funds wisely. That is what will drive those policymakers to spend more on innovation and research. With the rise in airborne illnesses, research and innovation into vaccines and drugs will need to be key. The comprehension that a pandemic’s economic cost could be huge, far exceeding investment in prevention and research, healthcare policymakers will be focused more on vaccines, non-medical prevention methods, therapeutics, and research (Sinsky, & Linzer, 2020). An instance is a Covid-19 pandemic. There has been no relevant vaccine for the pandemic. If the policymakers focused on research and innovation, a cure or vaccine could be present.

Integration and unity are other directions the policymakers will focus on. Basing on the current Covid-19 pandemic, several vaccines have been developed, but none has been assimilated as the best. The policymakers will have to ensure the world health organization is united to make a decision. The current conflict of which is the best vaccine for Covid-19 is a clear indication that policymakers will focus on uniting and reclaiming the image and honor of the body. The policymakers might make decisions that will see the world health organization become independent again. With the body favoring some vaccines in the current pandemic, healthcare will be focused more on the unity of those health bodies. That could be viewed as happening in the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has made it possible to crop up an excuse for isolationism, nationalism, institutionalized racism, and anti-immigration policies. The healthcare policymakers will be focused on how such vices will not tear apart the health sector. Preparing for shock and responding to slow-burn issues and risks will be another healthcare policymaker’s direction. Shocks depict unexpected events with damaging consequences. Covid-19 has proved to be an example of a shock. The decision will focus on uncertainty and building resilience into public policies and services to reduce threats of adverse outcomes and exploit prospects where those occur (Peek, Sujan, & Scott, 2020).

Responding to slow-burn issues and risks will also be significant in decisions made. For instance, in public health, social care comprises the failure to challenge rising obesity and cardiovascular diseases. The direction will be in testing and investing in new technologies for long-term economic and human gain. Combining all these factors it is evident that the policymakers will focus more on strengthening the healthcare capacity and its pliability to shocks. The Covid-19 pandemic met the healthcare sector having fewer nurses, equipment, doctors, and hospital beds. The policymakers will have to ensure the decisions will be on redesigning of services, recruiting additional staff, and increasing hospital capacity. That will be among the general direction of healthcare policymakers. The direction will be physical capacity and more staff. The Covid-19 pandemic has precisely altered how healthcare workers offer care, are managed, and deployed (Renda, & CASTRO, 2020). That is a direction that healthcare policymakers will focus on. Provision of healthcare in pandemics is the key direction that these policymakers will strive to ensure they diversify. That will be based on how patients receive the utmost care and protect all healthcare providers in any pandemic. That will spill down to healthcare workforce attention.

The Covid-19 has outlined the consequences of the absence of attention to healthcare provider’s considerations and how essentially they are for increased pandemic responsiveness and preparedness. The direction will be on how well healthcare providers are attended in regards to pay, working conditions, and the benefits they attain after offering their services to the healthcare sector. The aspect that the Covid-19 pandemic has illustrated that healthcare providers are vital in pandemic responsiveness and preparedness is an aspect of consideration in the next five years. That will mean that in the next five years healthcare salaries and benefits will be a major area of discussion (Sinsky, & Linzer, 2020). The decisions will be processes for evaluating healthcare workforce needs based on forecasts of any pandemic spread, and incorporating options for swiftly scaling up the health workforce via scenario planning and modeling. Back-up options for pandemics will also be a key direction for policymakers in the healthcare sector.

In conclusion, the healthcare sector is continually evolving. With the current loopholes exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, healthcare policymakers have a huge task of ensuring they make decisions that will unite the healthcare sector. Those decisions will be vital to ensure that the healthcare sector is strong enough to handle any pandemic. Additionally, those reforms should also favor the healthcare providers. As illustrated above, Covid-19 has exposed that healthcare providers require attention for increased pandemic responsiveness and preparedness. The direction that the healthcare policymakers will mainly focus on is spending. That will mean that direction will be focused on the areas in the healthcare sector that needs more spending for increased healthcare provision.

References

de Campos-Rudinsky, T. C., & Undurraga, E. (2021). Public health decisions in the COVID-19 pandemic require more than ‘follow the science’. Journal of Medical Ethics.

Fuchs, V. R. (2020). Health care policy after the COVID-19 pandemic. Jama, 324(3), 233-234.

Jazieh, A. R., & Kozlakidis, Z. (2020). Healthcare transformation in the post-coronavirus pandemic era. Frontiers in Medicine, 7, 429.

Peek, N., Sujan, M., & Scott, P. (2020). Digital health and care in pandemic times: impact of COVID-19. BMJ Health and Care Informatics, 27(1), e100166.

Renda, A., & CASTRO, R. (2020). Towards stronger EU governance of health threats after the COVID-19 pandemic. European Journal of Risk Regulation, 11(2), 273-282.

Sinsky, C., & Linzer, M. (2020). Practice And Policy Reset Post-COVID-19: Reversion, Transition, Or Transformation? Commentary examines possible policy and practice changes for health professionals, regulators, and payers after the COVID-19 pandemic. Health Affairs, 39(8), 1405-1411.