Policymaking is typically hypothetical, as new policy actions have ramifications that can be unpredictable. My final proposal is a bill to fill in gaps in healthcare access for at-risk populations by expanding community health programs. Positive goals are to increase primary care access, promote the availability of individual preventative health services, and reduce disparity in healthcare so that needed medical attention is more likely to be accessed by those who need it (Haque et al., 2020). Moreover, community health centers can increase their capacity by providing more services, such as mental and chronic disease management.
However, there could also be some unintended outcomes. One of them is simply an input overload to those services, such as healthcare. More patients can overload existing staff and resources, leading to wait times or decreased quality of care longer (Fun et al., 2022). It will be more of a problem for people with complicated healthcare needs, requiring specialty care, which would delay their treatment.
It would also enable more responsible use by identifying areas that have received the bulk of funds due to their political capital or established healthcare infrastructure, leading other communities with less access to funding. It will result in under-resourced rural and marginalized urban communities with inadequate healthcare infrastructure. Disparities like that could exacerbate inequities in health care, where communities with fewer resources may already be coping to provide quality services even as they receive new funds. According to Jansson (2018), policies prepared to reduce inequalities may serve as a means to injure the underserved further by simply cementing current structures if not enough attention is paid during implementation.
These implications’ assumptions are grounded in experience with express access and the struggle to cope with surging demand. Policymakers need to expect such pessimistic consequences and make provisions to examine the effects of new laws continuously to retune those legislative interventions that are causing harm.
Reference
Fun, W. H., Tan, E. H., Khalid, R., Sararaks, S., Tang, K. F., Ab Rahim, I., … & Nawawi, M. K. M. (2022, January). Applying discrete event simulation to reduce patient wait times and crowding: The case of a specialist outpatient clinic with dual practice system. In Healthcare (Vol. 10, No. 2, p. 189). MDPI. https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/10/2/189
Haque, M., Islam, T., Rahman, N. A. A., McKimm, J., Abdullah, A., & Dhingra, S. (2020). Strengthening primary healthcare services to help prevent and control long-term (chronic) non-communicable diseases in low-and middle-income countries. Risk management and healthcare policy, 409-426. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2147/RMHP.S239074
Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social justice (8th ed.). Cengage.