Presidential Agendas Discussion

Presidential Agendas Discussion

Initial Post

Healthcare reform has been a major political topic over the past two decades. Policies have been debated on and implemented over the past ten to fifteen years that has changed the way healthcare works in America.

George W. Bush

In his state of the union speech, George W. Bush proposed a plan to make healthcare more affordable, clear, mobile, and efficient. He signed a bill in 2003 to start healthcare savings accounts and made changes to bring more generic drugs to pharmacies, reducing prescription costs. In 2004, he initiated the move to make all medical records electronic and accessible to Americans within a decade. This reduced costs for consumers, particularly the “baby boomers” with many prescription needs. People could use tax-free healthcare savings accounts to save on healthcare expenses and lower their taxable income. Electronic medical records made accessing your health information faster for emergency situations.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama is famous for the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. It introduced the National Health Insurance Exchange (NIE), savings for preventative care, and lower costs for generic drugs. The NIE offered private insurance options to those without employer coverage or with expensive employer plans. These plans had various coverage levels, from low premiums to low deductibles. Obama aimed to cut prescription drug costs by allowing imports from other countries at reduced prices.

Donald J. Trump

On his first day in office, Donald Trump began dismantling Obamacare. He removed the individual mandate, which penalized those without insurance. He also stopped federal payments for cost-sharing reduction subsidies and expanded access to short-term plans. The mandate aimed to ensure more Americans had health coverage, thus lowering healthcare costs. Removing it meant no penalty for those without insurance. Cost-sharing subsidies were government payments to insurers to keep costs down; Trump ceased these payments, leading to increased prices for certain health plans.

NURS 6512 Discussions and Assignments: Advanced Health Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning

What Would I do Differently?

If I were in charge, I wouldn’t completely overhaul the healthcare system like President Obama did. While some of his ideas were good, such a system might not work well in America’s democratic context. Instead of penalizing those without healthcare, I’d offer tax breaks for those who sign up, without income limits. I’d revamp the national database plans to focus on preventative care, covering primary care visits, wellness check-ups, lab work, with only a copay, and everything else fully covered. This change would make healthcare more accessible and affordable.

References:

Reforming Health Care for the 21st Century. (2006, February 15). Https://Georgewbush-Whitehouse.Archives.Gov/. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/stateoftheunion/2006/healthcare/#:%7E:text=In%20his%20State%20of%20the,world%20in%20cutting%20edge%20medicine.

 

Ventola C. L. (2009). President Obama’s health care reform policies: Issues of interest to P&T committees. P & T: a peer-reviewed journal for formulary management, 34(6), 296–308 Presidential Agendas Discussion.

Simmons-Duffin, S. (2019, October 14). Trumps Five Big Changes to Obamacare: Shots. WWW.NPR.ORG. https://choice.npr.org/index.html?origin=https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/10/14/768731628/trump-is-trying-hard-to-thwart-obamacare-hows-that-going

Discussion: Presidential Agendas

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