Medicaid and Medicare are public health programs that were introduced to the public health sector of the United States in 1960 by the US government. These programs aimed to provide affordable healthcare services to United States citizens. As a result of the introduction of these programs, the citizens of the United States were given the mandate to finance the two by use of the tax they pay to the government, and as such, every citizen feels obligated and responsible to the success of the healthcare system. Even though the two programs are aimed at providing affordable and efficient services to the citizens of the United States, they have their similarities and differences. Medicare is termed as a program created by the federal government to give proper healthcare services to the persons who of the ages 65 and over. Different physical challenges medication is part of the services that Medicare program covers. In addition to the tax payer’s money contributed by citizens of the United States, premium contributions are also necessary for individuals who would like to enjoy the cover. Medicaid, on the other hand, is a public health program designed to provide proper medical services to an individual who has low-income regardless of their age. This program was set up by the federal government and the state. The significant advantage of this program is that it provides medical care for long-term illnesses for individuals who are covered by this program. Even though the cover for this program is the same for citizens across the nation, services may differ from one state to another. This paper aims to talk about a governmental agency that has influenced Medicare and Medicaid in the United States. This paper will also try to describe the purpose of the selected government agency as well as its effects on different areas of healthcare.
Our agency of interest is the CDC also referred to as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC is one of the sovereign nation’s public health institution in the United States. This agency is a federal agency that is structured in the Department of Health and Human Services. CDC was founded in the mid-1940s as a result of the control of malaria during the Second World War mostly in areas of war ( Finkel, 2011). The agency located its headquarter in Atlanta since malaria had spread through the southern states of America.
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The agencies that preceded CDC were the spring of efforts to locate the workforce in the public health division as well as support the development of agencies in the public health division across the nation. Programs that have been set up by CDC have provided their support in their agenda to train laboratory staff in the public health sector technically. The CDC has as well offered their support to train program staff in the prevention of HIV/ AIDS, control of sexually transmitted diseases, control of tuberculosis, good healthcare in schools and more recent activities, prevention of injuries and chronic diseases in the United States and across the globe at large.
In regards to a strategic plan that was set up in the year 2000 in conjunction with CDC and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), (OWPP) an Office of Workforce Planning and Policy was created. This organization was set up to ensure accountability and coordination in light to the implementation of the strategic plan that was arrived at by CDC and ATSDR ( Gostin, & Wiley, 2018) . OWPP also aims at overseeing that the development of policies for workforce standards as well as assemble partners in healthcare to address different issues affecting the healthcare sector and provide support to the technical teams that make the strategy possible. The main goal of these agencies in line with the strategy discussed earlier is to advance the capability of workers of public health to perform basic services to the public as well as to prepare human resource to respond to ongoing and emerging threats that are health-related (Gostin, & Wiley, 2018).
In light to the 2000 Strategic Plan for the Development of the workforce of Public Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has funded over fifteen Centers in the Public Health Preparedness institutions. This action is spearheaded to make sure the workforce of the public health workforce is ready to handle emergencies that arise from epidemic cases as well as cases that are targeted to act as bioterrorism against the nation.
Government agencies in the developing workforce of the public workforce for the current and upcoming centuries take different forms about their potential roles in a nation. Several measures are put in place to make sure the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of the agencies that take up the responsibility to make sure emergencies of public health on infectious diseases and critical illness are controlled. Some of these measures are providing support to students in public health institutions, development of relevant academic programs and continuous education on current and emerging issues, technology advancement, research, modeling, and faculty development.
Early this year, (CDC) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, and (CMS) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced the takeoff of a task force that will help the public in attaining a safe and healthy population. The task force that was created was referred to as The Tri-Agency Task Force for Emerging Diagnostics. This task force aims to assist in influencing the expertise of these agencies to spread quick advancement and distribution of diagnostic tests in public and clinical health laboratories in the event of an emergency in public health. As such, diagnostic criteria similar to the ones that are used to detect harmful pathogens the likes of Zika and Ebola viruses could be availed to different laboratories across the nation and the globe at large to come up with a solution to these threats.
In such a scenario, the CDC is given the responsibility of providing specialized agents in epidemiology, an expert in matters laboratory as well as providing technical training and guidance to other laboratories and clinicians in ways to handle such emergencies. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services with the help of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guide different laboratories across the nation on fulfilling the requirements of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA) ( Schneider, 2011) . As such, these efforts make sure that the involved laboratories produce timely, reliable and accurate results to curb any health-related threat that may be posed to the United States.
References
Finkel, M. L. (2011). Public health in the 21st century . Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger.
Gostin, L. O., & Wiley, L. F. (2018). Public health law and ethics: A reader . Oakland, California: University of California Press.
Schneider, M. J. (2011). Introduction to public health . Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
