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Module 5 Discussion

Healthcare has been one of the most complicated and political issues in the United States of America. Nurses continue to play important roles in the healthcare system. Nurses were among healthcare providers that supported the affordable care act because it is very beneficial for the healthcare systems and patients who did not have health insurance. The United States is one of the greatest countries in the world and there are many opportunities in this country. Healthcare should not be an issue for the citizens of this country, but sadly people continue to suffer and die because of lack of health insurance. I believe that many advocacy actions need to be taken to improve healthcare through the state and federal level, but I will talk about one of the most important actions. The advocacy action I might take to improve health care through legislation at the federal level is to decrease the cost of prescription drugs. The reason I chose that action is because private prescription drug companies continue to increase drugs prices on patients who needs the prescription drugs but not able to afford them due to low incomes.

The healthcare industry is a money machine industry. It costs lots of money to cure diseases and to buy prescription drugs. Most prescription drugs companies care more about making money and competition than their patients. I believe that congress and the senate must pass a legislation or a law that prevents prescription drugs company from increasing drugs prices on consumers. Recently, President Donald Trump took an historic action to deliver lower prescription drug prices to American patients. The president signed four Executive Orders on drug pricing directing the Secretary of Health and Huma Services to take several steps to deliver for American patients lower costs on prescription drugs, including insulin and epinephrine, and ensure Americans are getting the lowest price possible for their drugs. As a registered independent leaning more toward Democrats, I think the Trump administration is on the right path to help decrease prescription drugs prices in this country. According to Socal and Anderson (2019), as congress considers various approaches to address rising costs, one of the options is to allow Medicare to negotiate prices directly with drug manufactures on behalf of Part D beneficiaries, the challenges of this policy is the potential need for Medicare to impose a restrictive formulary to negotiate effectively with drug companies. This showed that the Trump administration and congress are trying to come up with a solution to decrease prescription drugs prices, but the private drug companies will continue to fight because it will not be beneficial for them if their drug prices lowered.

According to Fein (2019), some prescription drugs company offer multiple discounts to patients, which gives them the opportunity to purchase their medications. The article also stated that the companies provided those discounts because they want their products or invention to get on the market for advertisement purposes. Prescription drug companies have lots of powers in the political system, which makes it difficult for congress and senate to pass laws that are beneficial to the patients or consumers rather than the big prescription drug companies.

References

Socal, M. P., & Anderson, G. F. (2020). Older Americans’ Preferences Between Lower Drug Prices and Prescription Drug Plan Choice, 2019. American Journal of Public Health, 110(3), 354-356. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305483 (Links to an external site.)

Fein, A. J. (2019). Don’t Blame Drug Prices on Big Pharma. Journal of Oncology Navigation & Survivorship, 10(4), 161-162.