Agenda Comparison Grid and Fact Sheet
It may seem to you that healthcare has been a national topic of debate among political leaders for as long as you can remember.
Healthcare has been a policy item and a topic of debate not only in recent times but as far back as the administration of the second U.S. president, John Adams. In 1798, Adams signed legislation requiring that 20 cents per month of a sailor’s paycheck be set aside for covering their medical bills. This represented the first major piece of U.S. healthcare legislation, and the topic of healthcare has been woven into presidential agendas and political debate ever since.
As a healthcare professional, you may be called upon to provide expertise, guidance and/or opinions on healthcare matters as they are debated for inclusion into new policy. You may also be involved in planning new organizational policy and responses to changes in legislation. For all of these reasons you should be prepared to speak to national healthcare issues making the news.
In this Assignment, you will analyze recent presidential healthcare agendas. You also will prepare a fact sheet to communicate the importance of a healthcare issue and the impact on this issue of recent or proposed policy.
To Prepare:
Review the agenda priorities of the current/sitting U.S. president and at least one previous presidential administration.
Select an issue related to healthcare that was addressed by two U.S. presidential administrations (current and previous).
Consider how you would communicate the importance of a healthcare issue to a legislator/policymaker or a member of their staff for inclusion on an agenda.
Use your Week 1 Discussion post to help with this assignment.
The Assignment: (1- to 2-page Comparison Grid, 1-Page Analysis, and 1-page narrative) with a title page. This is an APA paper. Use 2-3 course resources and at least 2 outside resources.
Part 1: Agenda Comparison Grid
Use the Agenda Comparison Grid Template found in the Learning Resources and complete the Part 1: Agenda Comparison Grid based on the current/sitting U.S. president and the previous president, and their agendas related to the population health concern you selected. Be sure to address the following:
Identify and provide a brief description of the population health concern you selected.
Explain how each of the presidential administrations approached the issue.
Identify the allocation of resources that the presidents dedicated to this issue.
Part 2: Agenda Comparison Grid Analysis
Using the information you recorded in Part 1: Agenda Comparison Grid on the template, complete the Part 2: Agenda Comparison Grid Analysis portion of the template, by addressing the following:
Which administrative agency (like HHS, CDC, FDA, OHSA) would most likely be responsible for helping you address the healthcare issue you selected and why is this agency the most helpful for the issue?
How do you think your selected healthcare issue might get on the presidential agenda? How does it stay there?
An entrepreneur/champion/sponsor helps to move the issue forward. 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 and why would this person be a good entrepreneur/ champion/sponsor? An example is Michael J. Fox is champion for Parkinson’s disease.
Part 3: Fact Sheet
Using the information recorded on the template in Parts 1 and 2, develop a 1-page fact sheet that you could use to communicate with a policymaker/legislator or a member of their staff for this healthcare issue. Be sure to address the following:
Summarize why this healthcare issue is important and should be included in the agenda for legislation.
Justify the role of the nurse in agenda setting for healthcare issues.
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Agenda Comparison Grid Assignment Template for Part 1 and Part 2
Part 1: Agenda Comparison Grid
| . Identify the Population Health concern you selected. | The population health is the Cost of healthcare | |
| Describe the Population Health concern you selected. | In the United States, the cost of healthcare has arguably been one of the most pressing healthcare issues. Research has shown that this high cost has become burdensome to the society with the main factors contributing to these high costs being a general lack of transparency in pricing, the high costs of prescription drugs and administrative costs.
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| Administration (President Name) | Trump Administration | Biden Administration |
| Explain how each of the two presidential administrations approached the issue. | The administration tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which was in place to try and increase access to healthcare to all. Trump sought to replace the ACA with the American Health Care Act (AHCA) which would eliminate the individual mandate and subsidies for health insurance.
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Currently, the Biden administration has been in a relentless effort to build on the ACA whereby there have been proposals to expand subsidies for health insurance and to increase the Medicaid reimbursement rate for primary care.
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| Identify the allocations of resources that the current and previous presidents dedicated to this issue. | In an effort to reduce the cost of care, the administration proposed reforms such as allowing people to buy health insurance across state lines, allowing for competition in healthcare marketplace as well as allowing flexibility across the states in the administration of Medicaid.
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There have been a series of proposed reforms under the current government that include allowing states to negotiate prescription drug prices. Another reform is an effort to increase transparency on healthcare costs.
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Part 2: Agenda Comparison Grid Analysis
| Administration | |
| Which administrative agency (like HHS, CDC, FDA, OHSA) would most likely be responsible for helping you address the healthcare issue you selected? Why is this agency the most helpful?
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Arguably, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) would be the best tasked agency with the responsibility to address the cost of healthcare (Butticè,2019). Among the responsibilities the CMS is tasked with is administering Medicaid which provides health coverage to seniors and people with disabilities.
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| How do you think your selected healthcare issue might get on the presidential agenda? How does it stay there? | To get the issue of healthcare cost on the presidential agenda is to frame it as an issue that has negative impacts on the economy (Lynch et al., 2019). In addition to this, in order to make sure that the issue stays for long in the presidential agenda, having someone committed to it champion it would be helpful (Wammes et al., 2018). A good example is would be an entrepreneur developing new cost-saving solutions or, even better, a healthcare policy expert who actively advocates for change.
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| 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. | My proposed choice of sponsor for the bill would be Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a renowned American neurosurgeon. Dr. Gupta possesses a wealth of experience in the healthcare field, is well-respected across the medical field making him an ideal candidate.
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Part 3: Fact Sheet
- Summarize why this healthcare issue is important and should be included in the agenda for legislation.
The fact that the cost of healthcare impacts everyone in society makes it an important healthcare issue. According to Ubel (2019, the cost of healthcare has a huge impact on the economy given that this forms a major part of the national budget and is arguably a key driver of inflation. Importantly, the cost of healthcare also has huge impacts on the quality of care since providers may overlook or bypass certain procedures and processes in a bid to save costs.
- Justify the role of the nurse in agenda setting for healthcare issues.
Nurses play important roles in agenda setting for issues such as healthcare costs. According to Lynch et al. (2019), the involvement of nurses is important as they are the front lines of patient care and see the impact that rising costs have on patients and families. Commenting on this, Butticè (2019) added that nurses are well-positioned to work with other health care professionals to find ways to reduce costs while maintaining or improving quality of care. Following this, a notable way in which they can help with this is by promoting preventive care as well as educating patients on ways to save money on healthcare.
References
Butticè, C. (2019). Universal Health Care. ABC-CLIO.
Lynch, H. F., Cohen, I. G., Shachar, C., & Evans, B. J. (Eds.). (2019). Transparency in Health and Health Care in the United States: Law and Ethics. Cambridge University Press.
Ubel, P. A. (2019). Sick to Debt: How Smarter Markets Lead to Better Care. Yale University Press.
Wammes, J. J. G., van der Wees, P. J., Tanke, M. A., Westert, G. P., & Jeurissen, P. P. (2018). Systematic review of high-cost patients’ characteristics and healthcare utilisation. BMJ open, 8(9), e023113.