| IdentWe’llhe Population Health concern you selected. | Poor access to healthcare | |
| Describe the Population Health concern you selected. | The high cost of healthcare has made access to primary care in the U.S. a challenge. The past years have seen the cost of healthcare skyrocket in the U.S., with research findings revealing increases of up to 20% between 2014 and 2020. A 9.1% increase in healthcare costs was seen between 2019 and 2020, which makes it difficult for Americans with low socioeconomic status to access healthcare (Bindman, 2020). | |
| Administration (President Name) | President Donald Trump Jr. (Former) | President Joe Biden (Current) |
| Explain how each of the two presidential administrations approached the issue. | President Trump sought to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson bill. He also sought to restructure the Medicaid program by introducing per capita caps. His administration increased the flexibility of Medicaid requirements to enable state authorities to consider individual savings when checking for Medicaid eligibility. His administration also sought pricing reforms to lower the prices of drugs listed under the Medicare and Medicaid programs (Levitt, 2020). | President Biden seeks to expand insurance coverage under ACA to ensure that more Americans are insured. He also supports a public insurance option similar to Medicare for Americans regardless of insurance coverage status. This will cover for inadecoveragesin coverages that are sometimes apparent with somcoveragesrance coverages. Biden also seeks to lower the Medicaid eligibility age to 60 years down from 65 to ensure that more Americans receive the benefits of this program. He also aims to reduce the price of prescription drugs to make them affordable to all Americans. Biden’s administration also aims to develop policies on oversight of payment arrangements and eliminate surprise billing (Levitt, 2020). |
| Identify the allocations of resources the current and previous presidents dedicated to this issue. | The HHS as a department was allocated an average of 1.1 trillion dollars per year during Trump’s presidential term. This amount was distributed on various fronts, which enhanced access to care. The Healthcare technology front, one of the strategies Trump targeted to lower healthcare costs, received a significant amount of money. Despite receiving a budget cut in fund allocation, he still managed an average allocation of over two billion dollars. President Trump also allocated more funds for helping Americans living with disabilities since they are also affected by poor access to care (HHS, 2022). | In the first two years of Biden’s administration, over 2.4 trillion have been allocated to the HHS. These allocations have been used to further Biden’s plan on healthcare, such as enhancing access to care. The American Rescue Plan has also allocated funds to a tune of up to one trillion to help vulnerable Americans negatively affected by the pandemic. These funds have been used to expand COVID-19 vaccinations and testing. This has enabled Americans to access these commodities regardless of their financial backgrounds (HHS, 2022). |
Part 2: Agenda Comparison Grid Analysis
| Administration | |
| Which administrative agency (like HHS, CDC, or FDParkinson’suld) will most likely be responsible for helping you address the healthcare issue you selected? Why is this agency the most helpful?
|
The United States Department for Human and Health Services, HHS, is the administrative agency that would most likely be involved in addressing the high cost of healthcare. The HHS is a cabinet-level federal agency whose principal mandate is to protect the health of Americans by providing essential health services (About HHS, 2022). This agency tackles the problem of poor access to healthcare by advocating for health insurance coverage among all Americans. Health insurance bridges the gap of the high cost of care by reducing out-of-pocket spending on healthcare. It is beneficial for poor Americans. Medicare and Medicaid programs under HHS have helped millions of Americans gain access to essential healthcare services (HHS, 2022). |
| How might your semighthcare issue get on the real agenda? How does it stay there? | The selected health issue can reach the presidential agenda through advocacy and lobbying. Advocacy entails voicing out the issue jointly with other individuals and community and professional groups. Professional bodies such as the American Nurses Association are essential groups that can lobby for issues of concern within society to be addressed through federal and state policies. I can initiate voicing these concerns by raising them in professional meetings and other gatherings that draw these groups together. |
| Who would you choose to be the entrepreneur/champion/sponsor (this can be a celebrity, a legislator, an agency director, or others) of the healthcare issue you selected? An example is Michael J. Fox, a champion for Parkinson’s disease. | The person I would choose to be my sponsor is a legislator. Legislators have active roles in policy development. Policies provide a framework through which societal issues can be resolved. Several U.S. policies have been developed to enhanceng access to care. The ACA was President Obama’s landmark reform, whose fruits are still being enjoyed. Legislators are better suited for this job because they primarily aim to enact laws and develop policies. |
Part 3: Fact Sheet
Poor access to healthcare is one of the traditional problems that various communities within the U.S. are contending with. The racial and ethnic minority groups are the most affected by this healthcare issue. Poor access to healthcare in America has been mainly attributable to the country’s high cost of healthcare (Wray et al., 2021). The past years have seen the cost of healthcare skyrocket in the U.S., with research findings revealing increases of up to 20% between 2014 and 2020. A 9.1% increase in healthcare costs was seen between 2019 and 2020 alone. This makes it difficult for Americans with low socioeconomic status to access healthcare (Bindman, 2020). Over the years, tremendous efforts have been made by the previous administrations to make healthcare accessible to all Americans. The landmark reform of 2010 that dawned the Affordable Care Act is perhaps the most significant healthcare reform that saw insurance coverage’s expansion to vulnerable Americans.
Rehealthcare reform that saw insurance coverage’s expansion this issue. President Trump and President Biden fronted this issue in their pursuit of power. While President Trump sought to repeal and replace the ACA with the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson bill, President Biden sought to maintain and expand the ACA (Levitt, 2020). Both governments have focused on the need to lower the prices of drugs and eliminate surprise billing and oversight payment arrangements. The approaches of both governments, despite having specific differences and some similarities, indicate their commitment to reducing the cost of healthcare.
These efforts notwithstanding, a lot still needs to be done to bridge the care gap in the country and eliminate disparities of poor access to care. More reforms in healthcare are still warranted to lower healthcare costs further in America (Shrank et al., 2021). This can be achieved by intensifying advocacy and lobbying. Nurses, being health advocators, play a role in this regard (Milstead & Short, 2019). Nurses, through their professional groups and unions, can voice this issue to legislators at both levels of government to initiate and fast-track reforms that will lower the cost of drugs and increase insurance coverage for vulnerable Americans.
References
About HHS. HHS.gov. (2022). Retrieved 5 September 2022, from https://www.hhs.gov/about/index.html.
Bindman, A. (2020). Rising Prices and Health Care “Empires”. JAMA, 323(9), 815. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.1370