Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Making Evidence-Based Health Policy Work in the Political Process

(The Impacts of Politics on the Policy Process)

The Obama Administration has made a major investment in promoting better use of evidence to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery, but the ultimate impact of this reform project will require vast changes in institutional practices. Key institutional players in the health policy arena—from legislators to academic researchers —will need to have incentives to support, generate and apply objective information to key decisions, including the coverage of treatments, the adoption of technology, and the regulation of insurance markets. All of this will take place in a highly charged political process, in which public opinion and interest group lobbying carry great weight. What are the possibilities of transitioning toward a more evidence-based healthcare delivery system, informed by research and expertise? Which institutional actors are most likely to embrace this reform agenda, and which ones are most likely to resist it? This panel brings together papers from policy-oriented political scientists and health experts to examine the difficult tensions and dilemmas that will need to be overcome to make the pursuit of a high-performance, evidence-based healthcare system an institutional reality.