Dr. Drew Altman, president and CEO of KFF, has long sought to create an online resource or mini “textbook” for faculty and students interested in health policy. However, one of the stumbling blocks has been the lack of an agreed-upon definition of “health policy.”
At KFF headquarters in San Francisco, a physical timeline was created on a wall to display the central events in the history of the field. While this serves as a guide for the organization, not everyone has had the opportunity to visit the offices and see the health policy history wall in person. Additionally, different individuals may have varying perspectives on what constitutes health policy.
For KFF, health policy encompasses government actions, public programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and the ACA, and places a heavy emphasis on financing and coverage while prioritizing people over solely focusing on health professionals and institutions. Other definitions of health policy may exist, but KFF aims to provide basic materials on the issues they work on to assist faculty and students.
The chapters in this online resource will continue to evolve over time as KFF plays its role as an independent source of analysis, polling, and journalism on national health issues. Feedback from users will be taken into consideration as updates are made to existing chapters and new ones are added as needed. The goal is to provide a comprehensive guide to health policy topics while acknowledging that it may not cover every area of interest to faculty and students.
Dr. Altman welcomes feedback on the resource at daltman101@kff.org. Suggestions for improvements or ways to make it more helpful are appreciated by KFF as they strive towards providing a valuable online tool for those interested in health policy.
KFF’s physical timeline serves as a guide for their organization’s work in the field of health policy.
One challenge facing KFF is defining “health policy.” Different individuals may have varying perspectives on what constitutes it.
For KFF, health policy is heavily focused on government actions
