Investigators from Flinders University Have Reported New Data on Managed Care (Creating Political Will for Action On Health Equity: Practical Lessons for Public Health Policy Actors): Managed Care

2022 AUG 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators discuss new findings in Managed Care. According to news reporting originating from Adelaide, Australia, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Despite growing evidence on the social determinants of health and health equity, political action has not been commensurate. Little is known about how political will operates to enact pro-equity policies or not.”

Financial support for this research came from Australian National Health & Medical Research Council Centre for Research Excellence Grant.

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Flinders University, “This paper examines how political will for pro-health equity policies is created through analysis of public policy in multiple sectors. Eight case studies were undertaken of Australian policies where action was either taken or proposed on health equity or where the policy seemed contrary to such action. Telephone or face-to-face interviews were conducted with 192 state and non-state participants. Analysis of the cases was done through thematic analysis and triangulated with document analysis. Our case studies covered: trade agreements, primary healthcare (PHC), work conditions, digital access, urban planning, social welfare and Indigenous health. The extent of political will for pro-equity policies depended on the strength of path dependency, electoral concerns, political philosophy, the strength of economic and biomedical framings, whether elite interests were threatened and the success or otherwise of civil society lobbying. Public health policy actors may create political will through: determining how path dependency that exacerbates health inequities can be broken, working with sympathetic political forces committed to fairness; framing policy options in a way that makes them more likely to be adopted, outlining factors to consider in challenging the interests of elites, and considering the extent to which civil society will work in favour of equitable policies.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “A shift in norms is required to stress equity and the right to health.”

For more information on this research see: Creating Political Will for Action On Health Equity: Practical Lessons for Public Health Policy Actors. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 2022;11(7):947-960. International Journal of Health Policy and Management can be contacted at: Kerman Univ Medical Sciences, Jahad Blvd, Kerman, 7619813159, Iran.

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Fran Baum, Flinders University, College of Medicine and Public Health, Southgate Inst Hlth Soc & Equ, Adelaide, Sa, Australia. Additional authors for this research include Matt Fisher, Toby Freeman, Anna Ziersch, Belinda Townsend, Sharon Friel and Patrick Harris.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.34172/ijhpm.2020.233. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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