Steps on Becoming a Grassroots Advocate for Health Care Policy

Steps on Becoming a Grassroots Advocate for Health Care Policy Position on the American Health Care Act (AHCA) The paper highlights the nurses’ position on the American Health Care Act which was introduced by the United States Congress in an attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The AHA has been criticized by public health advocates, health care professionals and members of the public who feel that it will deny them access to care already granted by the ACA. He representative have thus been called upon to project the voice of the people and oppose the bill.

The following are some of the reasons why the bill should be rejected. 

It is irrefutable that most healthcare policies are developed to facilitate care delivery by increasing access to care. However, the AHCA does not appear to be supporting this objective. The implementation of the AHCA will leave many people without a health cover thereby significantly decreasing access to care.

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Since health laws developed at the local, state and national levels have a great impact on the people’s access to care legislators should uphold the principles of social justice and ensure that only laws which can potentially increase the access to care and delivery of quality care.

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I feel that 1the AHCA was a political tool that does not prioritize the health interests of many people.

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It would be wrong to support the bill because such a move would make insurance unavailable subsequently denying many a chance to get the necessary health care.

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Legislators must support legislative processes that are beneficial to the community.

However, at times, these parties may unknowingly sponsor bills that would have devastating consequences on the population.

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A critical evaluation of the AHCA reveals that besides the fact that it may reduce affordable coverage, it does not hold the promise of reducing health care costs.

The Basis for Rejecting the AHCA An evaluation of the AHCA reveals that this legislation is not the best alternative to the

ACA, which it was intended to repeal. The provisions of the AHCA are its main undoing. The AHCA implementation will negatively affect the access to care for many people who benefited from the Medicaid expansion provision of the ACA. The Medicaid expansion provision of the ACA was aimed at increasing coverage for a large proportion of the American populace that falls below the 138% Federal poverty level (Himmelstein & Woolhandler, 2017). If this provision is cancelled, as proposed by the AHCA, many people will be left without cover and access to care an aspect that contradicts the objective of increased access to care which the policy claims to promote (CNBC, 2018). Ironically, the AHCA proposed to retain most of the provisions of the

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ACA, which it was intended to repeal and replace (Koepke, 2017). Some of the provisions retained by the AHCA include the coverage for young people below the age of 26 years under their parents' insurance. The bill also retained coverage for individuals presenting with preexisting conditions. This is a clear pointed that there is no need to use controversial legislation to replace the ACA which offers numerous benefits to the people (CNBC, 2018). Furthermore, the AHCA does not support the penalization of employers who do not offer insurance cover despite having more than fifty employees. If penalties are eliminated the commitment of employers to health insurance will decrease significantly.

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Summary of the Legislative Visit Was your member in support of or in opposition to the AHCA? The analysis of the legislative visit reveals that it was successful. The representative promised to drum up support to reject the AHCA. The representative was made aware that one nurse did not decide to campaign against the proposed bill, but it was a collective action of nurses and other healthcare professionals. The visit resembled an interactive forum since ideas were exchanged concerning the potential benefits of the ACA and the disadvantages of the AHCA. The representative pointed out that he has been very instrumental in discussing issues revolving around universal health coverage. He also asserted that he was aware of the controversies associated with the AHCA. The representative noted that since this bill is opposed by nurses and other healthcare professionals, who form the backbone of the health care system, it is impractical to support it considering it may have negative consequences on the people. During this meeting, it was noted that legislators would be acting unreasonably if they repealed the ACA, which has benefited a multitude of previously uninsured patients, and replaced it with the AHCA. As pointed out by the representative, the ACA is nothing less affordable, and therefore no one should attempt to replace with a policy that has numerous unresolved issues.

The Three Points to Cover in Support of the Representative's Position Various issues need to be addressed in support of the representative’s opinion on AHCA. One of these issues is the individual and employers mandates. Even though it may be hard to generalize the impact of repealing individual and employer mandates, projections reveal that such a move may leave more than thirteen million people without insurance cover over the next few years. Since the primary purpose of the individual mandate was to make sure that everyone was buying premiums and not just the sick, the financial muscle of many insurance organizations

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will decrease forcing them to increase premiums. This will lead to an increase in insurance premiums by over 10% making them unaffordable for many people (Collier, 2017).

The other issue that needs to be tackled during the meeting is the age-tax imposed by the AHCA. One of the provisions of the AHCA is that premiums will be increased for seniors to about five times that of younger people (CNBC, 2018). Unfortunately, increasing the premiums does not imply that older people will be provided with much better care than their younger counterparts. The proposal by the AHCA, to reduce tax credits will reduce coverage since these credits make help seniors afford their coverage (Himmelstein & Woolhandler, 2017).

The repeal of the Prevention and Public Health Fund is the other issues that need to be addressed comprehensively. The ultimate objective of the fund was to transform the nation’s health care system. If the fund is repeal, the numerous benefits it presents to the people will be negatively affected (Engel, 2018). Issues such as preventive care will be disastrously affected.

The Influence of Nursing Experience on the Advocacy Position on the AHCA The experience of a nurse is one of the main tools used in influencing advocacy on various health policies. Since nurses constitute a vital part of the healthcare system core, they understand the health need of individuals as well as the community. Nurses, who have witnessed beneficial changes brought about by the implementation of the ACA, may, therefore, be reluctant to support legislation that threatens to repeal and replace it (Engel, 2018).

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References CNBC (2018). Donald Trump's health-care report card: Lots promised, not so much delivered.

Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/08/donald-trumps-health-care-reportcard-lots-promised-not-so-much-delivered.html Collier, R. (2017). Why Trumpcare failed. CMAJ, 189(17), E645–E646. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.1095414 Engel, J. (2018). Unaffordable: American healthcare from Johnson to Trump. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin.

Himmelstein, D., & Woolhandler, S. (2017). Trumpcare or transformation. American Journal of Public Health, 107(5), 660–661. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2017.303729 Koepke, A. (2017). Trumpcare: Making employee benefits great again!TM. NEW York, NY: BookBaby.