Why is Health Policy Important?
Health Policy impacts society because policies are developed from specific plans, decisions and actions undertaken to achieve certain health care goals. While there are many catagories of health care policies, we concentrate solely on those that have the largest impact on public health, specifically public health that affects child health and preventing childhood obesity.
Developing effective public health policies is complex and involves different levels of government and numerous stakeholders with sometimes different interests. Sometimes, changing the playing field and the environment can have an immense impact on outcomes. However, unless everyone is on the same page then it can be an uphill battle from the start. In our particular case of creating health policy to battle the childhood obesity epidemic not everyone is on the same page just yet.
CATCH Investigators at the Michael & Susan Dell Center have been at the forefront advocating for state and national policy with cost analysis that affect physical activity, nutrition, coordinated school health and obesity prevention policies.
Senate Bill 19