First Steps in Becoming a Grassroots Lobbyist
Support of My Position on Trumpcare- AHCA
In my opinion, AHCA does not provide the best way to fix Obamacare. Despite having its shortcomings as well, ACA has helped a great deal in improving the standards of health services and making it affordable to millions of Americans. The following are the reasons why I feel AHCA does not offer the best healthcare reforms.
- Trumpcare is only beneficial to big employers and wealthy people at the expense of poor people. This is despite the significant number of sick and poor people who need help accessing medical care.
- With Trumpcare, consumers are required to pay 30% more for one year, just in case, they will have a lapse in coverage for more than two months. This is a potential cost barrier for individuals who are not able to pay for healthcare services
- Trumpcare will cause a significant rise in the number of people who are not covered by insurance because this Act does not really belong to Universal Coverage.
- Trumpcare bill removes the employer mandate. AS much as this may be a good thing for employers who ha costly employee plans, it would be a bad thing for employees who depend on their employers for coverage.
- As much as Trumpcare plans to make healthcare cheaper, there are many other problems that are associated with the system. Thus, we cannot rely on this bill to reduce state deficits unless the government makes deep cuts.
- The other reason I don’t support the AHCA initiative is that the ideas of limited people, e.g., Paul Ryan, are considered, while the ideas of others are ignored. For this reason, the most significant population of American’s are nor comfortable with the decisions that are arrived at.
The rationale for My Position
The main reason why I don’t support AHCA is my genuine concern that the act Trumpcare shifted the brunt of the weight of care costs on the lower end of the income scale instead of subsidizing it from the upper end of the income scale. Even though the goal of this act was to increase the amount of consumer choice that existed in the market place, many experts feel that this legislation is likely to achieve the exact opposite of this (Wilensky, 2017). This legislation is expected to cause the death of insurers because healthy people are allowed to drop out of the market without being subjected to any penalties for this. This insurer’s death spirals are consequently going to reduce consumer choice in the market.
Apart from facilitating the withdrawal of millions of Americans from insurance policies, Trumpcare is also going to increase the cost of healthcare access for individuals with pre-existing conditions and older people as well. Making healthcare more expensive for these groups of people would be a profound disadvantage to them as this will drive a lot of families into bankruptcy (Jost, 2017).
Considering the challenging nature of coming up with health policies, the best thing to do would be to look into the ACA’s loopholes and make a few amendments to this act to secure the future of the American health system (Wilensky, 2017). This would have entailed such things as moderating taxes on medical devices and pharmaceutical sales as well as the premiums payable to sustain insurance companies and also to maintain such benefits as the coverage of pre-existing conditions and also to allow for subsidization of insurance for the poor. This would go a long way in reducing deficits and may have a positive impact on the budget eventually.
Description of the Scenario Surrounding My Legislative Visit
My representative was in support of AHCA. He argued that it is challenging for policymakers to formulate comprehensive policy, especially in healthcare, where issues can be complicated. He explained that all the bills and reforms in healthcare that have also been passed in previous American governments had had their pros and cons. Trumpcare is, therefore, not an exception and also has its advantages and disadvantages as well. So instead of just looking at the limitations of this bill, American policymakers can focus all the efforts and attention towards the development of more comprehensive health policies.
He went further to explain some of the benefits of AHCA, some of which included the fact that Trumpcare would help reduce federal deficits and would also eliminate individual mandate. Therefore, no one would have to be fined for not having any coverage. He went further to explain that Trumpcare would repeal many consumer taxes that were imposed on medical equipment under the ACA. He also stated that with Trumpcare, insurance companies would have the opportunity to compete across stateliness. He also stated that with Trumpcare, there would be subsidies in place for individuals with pre-existing conditions.
To oppose my representative’s position, I covered the following three points; first is that it is not likely that Trumpcare would reduce federal deficits concerning the plan also has its limitations. Federal deficits will only be reduced if Trump’s government makes deep cuts (Jost, 2017). Concerning the issue of eliminating individual mandates, I don’t think this is a good thing because many Americans would opt to remain uncovered. This will present a significant downturn for insurance companies, many of which may shut limiting consumer choice in the market (Wilensky, 2017). Concerning pre-existing conditions, insurance companies will no longer cover pre-existing conditions. This will force individuals to make out-of-pocket payments, which is likely to result in bankruptcy.
As a nurse, it is my responsibility to help meet the evolving needs o the healthcare system. We, as nurses, have a critical role to play in healthcare reforms. The healthcare system is undergoing rapid changes. Nurses have a role in acting as advocates for their patients. They, therefore, need to ensure that these changes put emphasis on population health, the value of services delivered, and the quality of care rendered to patients (Tingvoll, Sæterstrand, & McClusky, 2016). Among all the healthcare professionals, nurses are the most actively engaged in direct patient care. They are, therefore, in a better position to provide leadership in matters affecting healthcare delivery and access as well as other issues, for instance, the development of systems to reduce medical errors, ensure better coordination of care, improve quality, and averting of workforce shortages.
To achieve this, they need to be familiar with governance, health law, and health policies. Apart from that, nurses are expected to develop leadership at every level because they are always charged with performing leadership activities when practicing advocacy for their patients. Therefore, I believe we as nurses are capable and fully empowered to provide excellent care to our patients and to participate in implementing necessary changes where we feel healthcare systems are becoming ineffective (Smolowitz et al., 2015). We cannot achieve this on our own. We, therefore, require the help of other stakeholders in healthcare, including physicians and administrators. Above all, we as nurses need to help each other by offering each other mentorship, educational, and skills development opportunities and, above all, a steady and robust support network.
References:
Jost, T. (2017). House passes AHCA: how it happened, what it would do, and its uncertain Senate future. Health Aff (Millwood). May.
Smolowitz, J., Speakman, E., Wojnar, D., Whelan, E. M., Ulrich, S., Hayes, C., & Wood, L. (2015). Role of the registered nurse in primary health care: meeting health care needs in the 21st century. Nursing Outlook, 63(2), 130-136.
Tingvoll, W. A., Sæterstrand, T., & McClusky, L. M. (2016). The challenges of primary health care nurse leaders in the wake of the New Health Care Reform in Norway. BMC nursing, 15(1), 66.
Wilensky, G. R. (2017). From multiple health plans back to” no plan”: March was a tumultuous time for health care with the demise–at least for now–of the American Health Care Act (AHCA). Healthcare Financial Management, 71(5), 26-28.