Inspiring Policy on Disease- and Emergency-Related Issues Essay

Inspiring Policy on Disease- and Emergency-Related Issues - Essay Example cy is on the process of being revised as the policy network grapple with the issue of whether routine mammograms for women starts at the age of 40 or 50. This particular issue is dependent on the movements of the current health care reform being undertaken in America. In examining the trajectory of breast cancer policymaking beginning in the 1980s towards the 1990s, one can identify the glaring fact that a single policy could take years to be made. This is demonstrated in Lillquist’s (2001) study on breast cancer policymaking, which mapped out the timeline of the most important legislative achievement to date, The Breast and Cervical Cancer Mortality Prevention Act. Legislative hearings on this policy began in 1984 and this stage in the process took six years before a bill was finally introduced and passed into law in 1990 (Lillquist, p.20). The period taken by the process was, as a matter of fact, short in comparison with the conventional lawmaking since breast cancer as a health problem is considered a special case with special characteristics. According to Lillquist, the breast cancer issue became an amalgamation of environmental, racial, aging and feminist issues (p.24). These characteristics entailed the political leverage that helped expedite policymaking. It must be noted that during the 1980s, the policymakers are lukewarm to the issue, treating breast cancer as part of a wider health policy. Prior position during this period did not consider services as the government’s responsibility (Lillquist, p.19). Kasper and Ferguson pointed out that even when breast cancer has been identified as a social issue since the 1970s, public policy responses were minimal (p.18). But in the course of the legislative process, this changed because of the advocacies of the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC). This group, which was composed of cancer survivors, worked tirelessly to raise the level of public awareness on the issue and get people involved. By the time a