Healthcare Policy and Advocacy
According to the AACN (2006), “Political activism and commitment to policy development are central elements of professional nursing practice” (p. 13). Throughout this course, you will hone the skills and competencies required for this type of involvement in policy.
Research is an essential step in the process of acquiring the skills and competencies, and interviews are one form of research that can serve as a valuable source of information. As such, this Assignment (which you will start this week, and submit by the end of Week 9) provides an opportunity for you to identify a health reform issue of interest and discuss the issue with a state or national politician (or their aide).
To prepare:
Identify a state or national politician (state representative or legislator, senator, congressman, governor, etc.), or aide, whom you would like to interview regarding current issues in health care reform.
As soon as possible, contact the individual’s office to request a meeting. Keep in mind that it may be difficult to get on their calendar, so plan accordingly. You may conduct the interview in person or by phone.
In advance of the interview, ask yourself:
What health care policy issue is important to me personally?
What issue do I want to bring to this person’s attention?
With this in mind, develop your list of questions for the interview around your selected health policy issue. In addition, you may wish to include questions related to health care reform:
What are your constituents most concerned about regarding health care reform?
What are the trade-offs associated with recent health care reform policy?
By Day 7 of Week 9
To complete:
Write a 3- to 4-page paper providing a summary and analysis of the interview and the health care reform issues you discussed.
Your written assignments must follow APA guidelines. Be sure to support your work with specific citations from appropriate Learning Resources and additional scholarly sources as appropriate. Refer to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association to ensure that your in-text citations and reference list are correct.
Healthcare Policy and Advocacy
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Healthcare Policy and Advocacy
Healthcare remains a primary political debate bearing the number of Americans whose lives are affected by the healthcare policies. Politicians employ the need to improve America’s healthcare as a tool to fuel their political ambitions. Presently, affordability of healthcare services, accessibility of healthcare, and management of drug prices remain primary among the healthcare policies in the political spectrum. As expected, the period before the 2020 US elections was marred with a range of promises on healthcare policy changes, something that should be used to ascertain the commitment of politicians to their promises. One of the leaders who campaigned in the healthcare policy limbo was the incumbent senator for Montana, Steve Daines. This report gives a summary of an interview with Senator Daines on Medicare drug price negotiations as a concerning healthcare policy. The interview was valuable to any stakeholder in healthcare who understands the need to tame drug prices and to achieve the intended affordable care for the citizens.
The Healthcare Policy Issue
The healthcare policy issue at stake in the interview with Senator Daines was Medicare drug price negotiations that are fast becoming a concern to most Americans. The policy issue stems from the huge amounts of money that prescription drugs command in the US presently (Sarpatwari et al., 2019). For large employers, prescription drugs account for 20% of health benefit costs while also representing 10% of national health expenditure. In response to such hiking costs, lawmakers are exploring a range of policy options that would allow the federal government to negotiate prescription drug prices on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries and individuals enrolled in private plans (Hernández-Izquierdo et al., 2019). In the engagement with Senator Daines, the discussion raced through a variety of topics on Medicare drug price negotiations, including the history of the negotiations, the status of the proposals, negotiations under HR3, the prospects of drug price policies, and the overall impacts of such policies.
On History of Price Negotiations
Senator Daines showcased a detailed understanding of the history of the negotiations that are likely to instill newer policies. The senator indicated that there had been concerns on how the government is alienated in negotiating drug prices when they are primary players in the payment plans. The senator cited the Medicare Part D program that has been seen as an impediment to the negotiation plans. The law that established the Medicare Part D benefit includes a noninterference clause. The clause stipulates that the HHS secretary “cannot interfere with the negotiations among prescription drug plan (PDP) sponsors, pharmacies, and drug manufacturers, and may not need to institute a structure for pricing drugs covered under Medicare Part D.” With such a clause in place, the government will violate its policies if it indulged in the negotiations. That marked the onset of policy changes.
The debates on policy changes to accommodate drug price negotiations have stayed for a range of political periods. In his recapture of the history, the senator indicated that there had been a need to instill policy changes since 2006. However, “there are challenges especially considering the political interests that surround such debates,” said Senator Daines. The proponents of the policy change believe that giving HHS Secretary the authority to negotiate drug prices would allow the buyer...