The 2007 Federal Policy On Childs Health Essay Samples

Improving basic child healthcare through the Reauthorization policy of 2007

Improving basic child health care through the Reauthorization policy of 2007
Though child care is quite important, there have been little efforts to enhance and develop the way child health is managed. In the year 2009, policy makers took interest in the State Children Health Insurance program SCHIP. Through these programs, efforts were devoted to the strengthening of the federal provision so that they can promote preventive, primary and developmental health care programs. Through the reauthorization policy, much legislation was introduced. Many of these were focused on improving the quality of the child health but most importantly were the provision that emphasized the primary health care of the child. This paper delves deep into one of the policies, that is the Primary child health service (reauthorization policy) and how this has influenced the SCHIP. Though there were many other policies that were developed by this time, the main concern of this paper is on primary health care of the child.

In many of the states around the country efforts by child advocacy groups and child-based organizations were aimed at improving the health care systems of children. The efforts got much of their support from the SCHIP and Medicaid. Most of the efforts by the federal governments were strategized around the SCHIP and the Medicaid programs; by 2007 they had covered more than 30 percent of the children all over the country. This program was able to provide health care services to more than the 30% of children and especially those that have special needs (Chen, Yamada, Smith & Chiu, 2011).
The efforts to ensure that children get good healthcare services started way back in the year 2005. A group of non-profitable organization from more than 47 states formed a committee that could strengthen and enhance SCHIP. The major aim was not only to make the basic family coverage affordable, but also providing the necessary developmental health services. Though the efforts did not bore many fruits in 2005, by 2007, they were not only able to lay the foundation, but also the framework for the development of SCHIP. Their efforts provided the playground for federal action.
Through the concerted efforts of the non-profitable organization, finally the Senate took the issue and sought to develop legislation that was to improve child healthcare. The Senate formulated policies that are not only based on chronic illness but also hospital-based conditions. The policies seek to improve the quality of child health and also primary health care of the child. Among the major issues that the Senate sought to deal with included the establishment of structures that could define and run the SCHIP. These structures were to make sure that primary or core child health care is enhanced in all the states. As well, the structures were to concentrate their efforts on the strengthening of not only primary but also preventive child health services. Apart from these the Senate sought to support additional researchers on the quality of the primary care services. There were also efforts to increase incentives that could promote evidence-based practice in the field of primary child health care (Bruner C, 2015).
One major policy that was aimed at ensuring the primary health of the child is the reauthorization act of 2007. This Act had provisions that were aimed at enhancing child health care services. First this policy was to develop core measures that could guide the enrollment of children into the program. These measures would determine whether a child needs to be enrolled into the SCHIP or not. Secondly the measures would determine the strategies that would establish and enhance pediatric programs. Additionally the policy required that every state produces annual reports demonstrating the measures that they have put on enhancing SCHIP. As well, the policy required that states should support projects that support the quality of children’s healthcare services. Apart from these efforts there were also funds that were devoted to the programs. These funds were to ensure that the program was successful.
This policy was developed by the Senate and was supposed to cover the whole country. It was aimed at addressing the challenges of primary child health care in all the states. In this way, it cuts across all the states. The policy requires that each state develop their strategies that are in unison to the act and also provide annual reports of the efforts and the progress they had made towards enhancing primary child health care. The fact that each state had its challenges when it came to dealing with basic childcare is the reason that the policy was developed. The policy allowed every federal government to independently carry out their efforts, but also give annual reports to the central government (Bruner, 2015).
There were many debates about this policy especially between the Senate and the presidential veto on this issue. The major debates that stirred a lot of controversy on the bill were the issues of the extent to which this law should have been applied. The problems were mainly on the degree of the children from higher income earning families that would be allowed into this program. There were also issues on how states that have programs that cover adults would have to transition into the program. Nevertheless, the program had many advantages since it was aimed at helping the needy and poor children. The only disadvantage in the debate is the fact that the issue of transition was not fully exhausted. Above all, the program has helped many of the needy children to get primary health care (Holmes, 2010).
The policy is consistent with the federalism constitution since it allows every state to develop its methodology for dealing with the issue of primary child care. Ideally, the federal Constitution allows each state to have their policies on how to tackle particular issues and these seem to come out well with this policy.
In a nutshell the policy was a great success; it was able to help address some of the challenges of basic child health care in the country. All the efforts that are there today to enhance the quality of child health care services base roots on this policy.

References

Bruner C, e. (2015). Improving child health care through federal policy: an emerging opp - PubMed - NCBI. Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18953760
Chen, C., Yamada, T., Smith, J., & Chiu, I. (2011).Improving children's healthcare through state health insurance programs: An emerging need. Health Policy, 99(1), 72-82.
Holmes, S. (2010). No Child Left Behind: A Failing Attempt at Reform. Student Pulse, 2(12). Retrieved from http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/337/no-child-left-behind-a- failing- attempt-at-reform