Healthcare Policy for the Nurse Practitioner

Abstract

PhD, NP F or both individuals and government, healthcare accounts for one of the largest areas of their spending. As such, the mechanics of healthcare and how it is financed are surrounded by controversy. “Politics is always local” is a common phrase, and this is especially true when politics surrounds healthcare; we tend to generalize about the adequacy or inadequacy of the healthcare system based on our own experiences with it. Regardless of whether people agree or disagree with the recent healthcare reform legislation that was passed, there is growing acceptance that the United States could not continue the way it had been operating. Medical debt among uninsured and underinsured citizens is one of the leading causes of bankruptcy in the US. Expenses related to those unpaid medical debts and bankruptcies are eventually paid by all of us. It makes good political and economic sense to have an organized way to make sure individuals have healthcare. With the new reform legislation, nurse practitioners moved into the nationwide limelight and onto the national policy agenda in a way never before achieved. Whether NPs will continue to have a place as recognized healthcare providers through the anticipated modifications to this legislation remains to be seen. Ensuring the viability of the NP role in healthcare will require that NPs who have not previously been involved in policy become engaged. Health policy is not always thoroughly discussed in graduate NP programs. Policy itself may have a negative or mystifying connotation. But simply put, health policy refers to particular decisions, strategies, and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific healthcare goals within a society. Just as the state and national legislatures work to develop specific policies, the American College of Nurse Practitioners, whose central mission is policy development, works with its constituent members every year to tailor an explicit health policy for NPs based on the views of their members. This process achieves several things; most notably, it defines a vision for the future of healthcare in which NPs can work to the full measure of their potential. This vision, in turn, helps to establish goals and reference points for both the short and long term. Specific health policy decisions order priorities and describe the expected roles of different groups; ultimately these decisions will help build NP consensus and inform others. The future is likely to hold huge conceptual debates about healthcare. Policies will be crafted about who will have access to medical professionals from various fields and what medical technologies will be available, such as medication, surgical procedures, kidney dialysis machines, etc. NPs must be part of that debate. Every day NPs are implementing policy as they meet the needs of their patients. We have added “Policy in Practice” to our journal cover to emphasize this reality. To help inform NPs, JNP will also highlight information about relevant policy within each issue or article.