Healthcare Policy can be a vital aspect of public policy with vast impacts on quality of life. For example, the United States continues to debate healthcare and the role of insurance. Should insurance be provided by the government to all who live in the United States? While there is no consensus on an answer to this question, maybe a better question would be, what role should government play in healthcare. In the early years of the United States, private and religious organizations cared for those that could not care for themselves and philanthropy or donations made by private citizens funded these operations.
But these are not the only questions our society struggles with in how government should function when dealing with health care. Other questions about healthcare policy are:
- Should an individual be allowed to make the decision to end their life or ask a health care professional to do so, in an effort to stay off the pains of death?
- Should high quality healthcare be provided to those incarcerated for crimes against society?
- Should people with mental health issues be incarcerated for crimes committed as a result of their mental conditions?
- Should nursing homes be excluded from disaster response efforts because they are private business even if they serve as a sheltering nursing home during disaster?