Health Care

Health Care

Introduction

Public Policy has been acquiring new dimensions to attempt for acquiring the status of a discipline. These policies form a significant component in several disciplinary categories such as the public administration and management. The academic growth of public policy worries many researchers and teachers for the increasing complexions in it (Smith, L.B., 2003).

Discussion

The Scope and Nature of the Public Policy Problem

Nature

A policy can either be qualitative or quantitative, but its basic nature is what the government decides as guidance for its actions. Government's activities can be divided into three categories: activities to specify policies, which are general and based on ambiguous and vague policies. Through the decisions of Supreme Court new policies are being formed. The socio economic development or any guiding principles for actions are being followed as a foundation of achieving goals.

Public policies can be taken as goal oriented statements as their nature is purposive course for any action as it may be either positive or negative in form (Anderson, J.E., 1975).

Scope

A significant part of the study of public policy consists of the development of scenarios and extrapolations of contemporary trends in the public domain. The scope and sheer size of the public sector has grown enormously, especially in developing countries in response to the growing public needs and demands; and the increasing impact of other trends, such as, the complexity of technology, social organization, industrialization and urbanization. At present, functions of all, governments in the developing countries have significantly increased. They are now concerned with the more complex functions of nation - building and socio-economic progress. Today the government is not merely the keeper of peace, the arbiter of disputes, and the provider of common goods and day-to-day services. It has, directly or indirectly, become the principal innovator, the major determinist of social and economic programs and the main financier as well as the main catalyst for economic enterprise and development (Anderson, J.E., 1975).

In many developing countries, there is great pressure on governments to accelerate national development, make use of up-to-date and relevant technological innovations, adopt and facilitate necessary institutional changes, increase national production, make full use of human and other resources, and improve the standards of living. These trends and developments have therefore enhanced both the size and scope of public policy. Public policies touch almost all stages of the citizen's life cycle. With the increasing recourse to privatization and outsourcing by public agencies the situation is undergoing rapid changes even in the developing countries. Michael Teitz wrote this nearly 40 years ago. The range of public policy is vast, that is from vital to trivial. Today, public policies may deal with such substantive areas as defense, environment protection, medical care and health, education, housing, taxation, inflation, science and technology, and so on (Anderson, J.E., 1975).

How the problem came to public and political awareness

Most of the government's policies are under the support of a political cause. As in whole of the U.S. public policy is widely used for the purpose of decision making and ...