Government Agencies and Health care Policy Paper

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is an agency that operates under the Department of Health and Human Services. Its main role is to conduct medical research that leads to critical discoveries, which improve the health of citizens and save lives.

Mission statement: To seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2017).

NIH intends to pioneer helpful and innovative discoveries and apply creative research strategies for health improvement. It also empowers the nation to prevent diseases by developing and maintaining both human and physical resources. The agency’s efforts improve medical knowledge, which is used to maintain the country’s wellbeing. While conducting these activities, NIH seeks to maintain the maximum level of scientific ethics, integrity, culpability, and social obligation. Once the agency successfully meets the stated goals, it spearheads the programs that seek to establish causes and prevent various conditions. It also provides guidance to programs that seek to understand the human development processes. It creates an understanding of various disorders that affect the health of humans (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2017). The NIH research findings influence health policy formulations. In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a policy to control fruit and mint-flavored cigarettes that encouraged the youth to smoke. These flavored products promoted the youth’s initiation to vaping (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2021).

Government’s Impact on NIH

The policy formulation process involves several federal government bodies. The policy-making process requires the specific body to remain objective. The judiciary is one of the arms of governments that directly affects this process. When NIH finding leads to the formulation of policies likely to interfere with the citizens’ liberty, nondiscriminatory, and privacy rights, the judiciary’s involvement is critical. For instance, a policy designed to protect fetal development may seek to protect women through exclusion from seemingly unsafe work environments, may promote the infants’ health and violate nondiscriminatory rights, which are fundamental. Thus, such policies are ruled out as partially protective and denied by the judiciary (Gostin, 1995). The presence of evidence to justify the findings is overruled in such cases.

The legislature may be more suited to determine the suitability of certain health policies because it is considered publicly accountable and impartial. The legislature can collect information from different quarters that are objective. It also has the necessary resources to engage in lengthy deliberations regarding proposed health policies based on findings of the NIH after research and other affiliated agencies. The diverse expertise of the legislature members makes this arm of government a reliable policymaker. Besides making policies, the legislature is also responsible for signing bills into law. For instance, on 23 December 2011, the legislature authorized the Consolidated Appropriations Act for the financial year 2012. The act affected the funding of various federal agencies, including the NIH (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2017). This confirms that the legislature can affect NIH’s affairs positively or negatively based on bills that are signed into law.

The executive part of the government tends to exert either positive or negative impacts on the NIH and other federal agencies. The impact is determined by the ruling party’s decision, which is often adopted by the judiciary as well. For instance, the policies governing and guiding reproductive health have constantly conflicted through different administrations. The Republican administration maintained stringent policies that restricted abortion rights. Various federal agencies, including the NIH, submitted different moratoriums. NIH sought funding to study the implantation of tissue from the fetus when abortions are induced. All the proposed parts of the policy were repealed during President Clinton’s administration. This set the country back regarding reproductive health policies as well as the privacy of medical information. These policies have been formulated over the past years through the involvement of different federal agencies (Gostin, 1995). Thus, different administrations can set back the country’s healthcare fabric by enforcing various laws.

Covid-19 Research

NIH considers the study of Covid-19 a priority. Using the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), NIH seeks to accelerate the condition’s research for rapid prevention and treatment. The NIAID research into covid-19 is governed by four main priorities. These include expanding the disease’s knowledge base, tracking its spread, characterizing as well as testing promising treatments, and the development of safe vaccines with high efficacy rates. This project’s goals are in tandem with the White House Coronavirus Taskforce’s objectives (National Institutes of Health, 2020).

The NIAID Covid-19 research is a health policy. A health policy is defined as a “policy that aims to impact positively on population health” (de Leeuw, Clavier, & Breton, 2014). The research that the government is currently finding into Coivid-19 is critical in improving the health of those who already have the virus. In addition, it is critical because it will provide efficient prevention measures and treatment of the condition. Eventually, these findings will improve the entire population by reducing the spread, providing clear information that is necessary for the prevention, and lowering the mortality rate of Covid-19 patients.

The Policy Analysis Process

Policy analysis is a critical step in the identification of the most appropriate policies. It enables the policy analyst to choose the policy that sorts the current problem effectively. A policy analyst must consider the problem and economic aspects to achieve efficiency. The policy analysis process involves the comparison of various policies systematically. Based on the problem at hand, a policy analyst should consider available options. The main elements that should guide the comparison include the impact on health, implementation cost, and the option’s feasibility. The involvement of stakeholders is critical to a proper comparison of the various policy options. This process highlights potential barriers that are likely to interfere with the process of implementation. Policies tend to exhibit different operation abilities in various states and populations (Collins, 2005). They may also be affordable in some places or unacceptable in others. The consideration of different policies enables a policy analyst to troubleshoot and probably identify potential solutions for each challenge. Once the comparison is complete, the ranking process begins; the ranking should be done according to the different criteria (CDC, 2021). This facilitates the decision-making process. Once the right decision is made, the desired results upon implementation are easily identified.

References

CDC. (2021). Policy Analysis. Retrieved from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/policy/polaris/policyprocess/policyanalysis/index.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fpolicy%2Fpolaris%2Fpolicyprocess%2Fpolicy_analysis.html

Collins, T. (2005). Health policy analysis: A simple tool for policy makers. Public Health, 119(3), 192-196.

de Leeuw, E., Clavier, C., & Breton, E. (2014). Health policy – why research it and how: health political science. Health Research Policy and Systems, 12(55).

Gostin, L. (1995). The Formulation of Health Policy by the Three Branches of Government. Institute iof Medicine. Washington DC: National Academies Press.

National Institutes of Health. (2020). NIAID strategic plan details COVID-19 research priorities. Retrieved from News Release: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/niaid-strategic-plan-details-covid-19-research-priorities

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2017). Legislative Chronology. Retrieved from The NIH Almanac: https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/what-we-do/nih-almanac/legislative-chronology

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2017). Mission and Goals. Retrieved 2021, from National Institutes of Health: https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/what-we-do/mission-goals

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2021). Impact of NIH Research. Retrieved from National Institutes of Health: https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/what-we-do/impact-nih-research/our-health

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