Programming
To gain current, differing ideological viewpoints on aspects of healthcare reform I watched three national news programs and read two newspaper articles from a national and local paper between 2/24/10 and 2/28/10. I watched “Special Report” freom Fox News on 2/24. On 2/25 I watched “World News Tonight” on ABC where the healthcare summit was reviewed. I also read the article “White House punts on key cost-saving move” from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from 2/25. On 2/27 I read “Democrats push forward on healthcare” from the LA Times. Finally, on 2/28 I watched “State of the Union” on CNN at noon.
Policy issue
The policy issue I have identified is prescription drug coverage. This interests me because prescription drugs are a major part of modern medicine. They serve as compliments to medical procedures; substitutes for surgery or other procedures; and new treatments where there were none previously (Oliver, Lee & Lipton, 2004). As the medical community’s understanding of the human body increases the possibility for new pharmaceutical interventions will increase.
Prescription drug coverage is an important issue because many rely on the day to day help they receive from prescription drugs. Furthermore, the elderly and disabled populations are particularly reliant on prescription drugs and have some of the least means to purchase them (Huh, Rice & Ettner, 2008). The combination of limited income and high drug costs can cause people such as seniors to take risks with their health by trying to extend their medications or go without them.
Political Ideology
I feel my political ideology most closely aligns with classical conservatism as described by Karger and Stoesz. This is because classical conservati...
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... Varasteh, L., Levin, R., Nan, L., et al. (2009). The effect of Medicare Part D coverage on drug use and cost sharing among seniors without prior drug benefits. Health Affairs,28(2), w305-w316. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.28.2.w305.
Shea, D., Terza, J., Stuart, B., & Briesacher, B. (2007). Estimating the effects of prescription drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries. Health Services Research, 42(3P1), 933-949. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6773.2006.00659.x.
Yuting, Z., Donohue, J., Newhouse, J., & Lave, J. (2009). The effects of the coverage gap on drug spending: A closer look at Medicare Part D. Health Affairs, 28(2), w317-w325. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.28.2.w317.
Zhang, J., Yin, W., Sun, S., & Alexander, G. (2008). The impact of the Medicare Part D prescription benefit on generic drug use. JGIM: Journal of General Internal Medicine, 23(10), 1673-1678. doi:10.1007/s11606-008-0742-6.
"In the past two decades or so, health care has been commercialized as never before, and professionalism in medicine seems to be giving way to entrepreneurialism," commented Arnold S. Relman, professor of medicine and social medicine at Harvard Medical School (Wekesser 66). This statement may have a great deal of bearing on reality. The tangled knot of insurers, physicians, drug companies, and hospitals that we call our health system is not as unselfish and focused on the patients' needs as people would like to think. Pharmaceutical companies are particularly ruthless, many of them spending millions of dollars per year to convince doctors to prescribe their drugs and to convince consumers that their specific brand of drug is needed in order to cure their ailments. For instance, they may present symptoms that are perfectly harmless, and lead potential citizens to believe that, because of these symptoms, they are "sick" and in need of medication.
(II) The enacting of Medicare Part D in 2006 only helped to fuel America’s hunger for prescription medication. In 2003, President George W. Bush announced and signed the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (also known as the Medicare Modernization Act, or MMA) on December 8th. The roughly $400 billion dollar measure was marketed to the American public as something that will provide care for the millions of senior citizens who, at the time, were struggling to afford prescription medication. This was the largest development of Medicare since 1965, which is when the program was initially created, and gave hope to those wishing for positive medical reform. According to title XI of the “Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003”, the most significant change will be the affordability of prescription drugs by implementing the importation of drugs from Canada, along with necessary safety measures, in order to lessen the cost (United States Congress, 832). For those who were in retirement homes and lacked a steady income, the affordability of drugs was often a deciding factor in the decision to seek medical attention and the idea that those individuals ceased to live simply because they lacked the funds tugged at the heartstrings of many Americans.
Holahan, J. (2012). The cost and coverage implications of the ACA Medicaid expansion: National and state-by-state analysis. Retrieved from urban.org
... (2013) IMS health study points to a declining cost curve for U.S. medicines in 2012 Retrieved from http://www.imshealth.com/portal/site/ims/menuitem.d248e29c86589c9c30e81c033208c22a/?vgnextoid=8659cf4add48e310VgnVCM10000076192ca2RCRD&vgnextchannel=437879d7f269e210VgnVCM10000071812ca2RCRD&vgnextfmt=default
Fontenot, S. (2013). Understanding the Affordable Care Act Bit by Bit: Will Transparency and Sunshine Shrink Costs?. Physician Executive, 39(5), 86-91.
Crowley, Ryan A., and William Golden. "Health Policy Basics: Medicaid Expansion." Annals Of Internal Medicine 160.6 (2014): 423-426. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.
Long, S. K., Kenney, G. M., Zuckerman, S., Goin, D. E., Wissoker, D., Blavin, F., Blumber, L. (2014). The Health Reform Monitoring Survey: Addressing Data Gaps to Provide Timely Insights into The Affordable Care Act. Health Affirs, 33(1), 161-167. doi:10.1377/hithaff.2013.0934
The United States (U.S.) has a health care system that is much different than any other health care system in the world (Nies & McEwen, 2015). It is frequently recognized as one with most recent technological inventions, but at the same time is often criticized for being overly expensive (Nies & McEwen, 2015). In 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) (U. S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.) This plan was implemented in an attempt to make preventative care more affordable and accessible for all uninsured Americans (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.). Under the law, the new Patient’s Bill of Rights gives consumers the power to be in charge of their health care choices. (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.).
While many low-income families obtain prescription coverage through government programs and may receive relatively generous drug benefits, those who have no prescription coverage are required to pay the full retail price charged at their pharmacies. Because the cash-paying customers are
Classical liberalism and classical conservatism are closely based as seen by Edmund Burke who was admired for his political philosophies from both classical liberalism and classical conservatism. Yet, with any group of people, not everyone is going to agree, and parties form even if it over a small issue. Consider the christian faith, there are many different denominations because of the beliefs in minor doctrine, but they all believe that Jesus is the Son of God, like the classical liberals and classical conservatives believe in the Constitution. So, what party are you in?
The two major components of Medicare, the Hospital Insurance Program (Part A of Medicare) and the supplementary Medical Insurance program (Part B) may be exhausted by the year 2025, another sad fact of the Medicare situation at hand (“Medicare’s Future”). The burden brought about by the unfair dealings of HMO’s is having an adverse affect on the Medicare system. With the incredibly large burden brought about by the large amount of patients that Medicare is handed, it is becoming increasingly difficult to fund the system in the way that is necessary for it to function effectively. Most elderly people over the age of 65 are eligible for Medicare, but for a quite disturbing reason they are not able to reap the benefits of the taxes they have paid. Medicare is a national health plan covering 40 mi...
There are three issues when it comes to the health care cost rising. The first is the rising cost in prescription drugs. The second area of rising cost is the increased technologies when it comes to the medical industry. The third problem is the aging population. Prescription drugs are the area of the fastest growing health care expense, and it is projected to grow at 20 to 30 percent each year over the next several years. There are many newer, more expensive drugs on the market, and the use of these prescriptions is exploding. In addition, with so much television advertising, many consumers ask their doctors for expensive, brand name drugs when there may actually be a generic drug that works just as well.
“Medicare and the New Health Care Law — What it Means for You.” (2010). Medicare Publications, http://www.medicare.gov/Publications/Pubs/pdf/11467.pdf
One in six Americans and mostly all of the population 65 years and older, are covered by Medicare. In 2012, Medicare provided for 50.7 million people, 42.1 million aged and 8.5 million disabled, with a total cost of $574 billion. This is about 21% of national health spending and 3.6% of Gross Domestic Product (Davis, 2013). Medicare, being a social insurance program, is required to pay for covered services provided to enrollees so long as the specific criteria is met. On av...
I feel that I am very consistent in all my thinking not only with politics but also with other issues. With my own experiences in this world I do believe that I am ideological in my political thinking and I am a pure conservative.