Discussion: Presidential Agendas

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An agenda is an essential guide that people uses to make informed decision. Presidents over the centuries uses as a platform to capture and retain voters’ attention. Due to the capabilities of the media the president’s agenda is captured throughout the world. Healthcare issues have made its way on all president’s agenda, including the ones we are mentioning in this discussion

. The healthcare industry is a very important contributing factor to the United States economy. Therefore, healthcare issues are handled very delicately by presidents. The topic that came to mind that rise to the presidential level is Healthcare Reform.

During George W Bush era he handled the Healthcare Reform by proposing to make insurance accessible by all Americans with the Affordable, accessible and flexible health coverage. With this meant was that insurance will be more economical with the intent that all Americans will be able to afford insurance. Instead of securing insurance through employment individuals will be able to purchase insurance independently (White House, 2007). What I would have done differently is that I would not have left that up to the citizens to figure out how to obtain insurance, but as a governing body we would create one standard health insurance that all Americans have access to regardless of socio economic status.

During President enure, he too had to address Healthcare Reform. His way of handling the issue at hand was he came up with the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare. This Affordable Care Act would allow uninsured American to be able to afford insurance coverage, prevent insurance companies from refusing to insured individuals because of comorbidities. He also proposed to manage the rise in drug cost (Bauchner, 2016). This virtually is the exact proposal that President George W Bush made and President Obama just renamed it. What I would have done differently was to remove the penalty that was implemented on the individual tax return if that person chooses to remain uninsured.

On President Donald Trump’s agenda was also Affordable Care Act. How he handled this issue was to revoke and replace crucial parts of the Affordable Care Act, by so doing the fine for individuals who choose to remain uninsured was removed from their tax return, Medicaid was downsized and balanced out with government assisted insurance coverage (Kaplan & Pear, 2017).  What I would have done differently is instead of repealing the existing bill that was benefiting the middle and low- income class make amendment to ensure that Americans can afford insurance coverage and create an insurance coverage system that would benefit the American people getting medical and prescription coverage at an affordable rate.

Discussion: Presidential Agendas References

Baucher, H. (2016). The Affordable Care Act and the Future of US Health Care. JAMA, 6(316),

492-493. doi:10.100/jama.2016.9872

Kaplan, T., Pear, R. (2017). House Passes Measure to Repeal and Replace the Affordable Care

Act. The New York Times. Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://smith4nj.

com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10NY-Times-5.14.2007-article-on-obamacare-vote.pdf

White House. (2007). State of the Union: Affordable, accessible, and flexible health coverage.

Retrieved November 30, 2020, from http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2007/

initiatives/healthcare.html

Main post

An agenda is an essential guide that people uses to make informed decision. Presidents over the centuries uses Presidential Agendas as a platform to capture and retain voters’ attention. Due to the capabilities of the media the president’s agenda is captured throughout the world. Healthcare issues have made its way on all president’s agenda, including the ones we are mentioning in this discussion. The healthcare industry is a very important contributing factor to the United States economy. Therefore, healthcare issues are handled very delicately by presidents. The topic that came to mind that rise to the presidential level is Healthcare Reform.

During George W Bush era he handled the Healthcare Reform by proposing to make insurance accessible by all Americans with the Affordable, accessible and flexible health coverage. With this meant was that insurance will be more economical with the intent that all Americans will be able to afford insurance. Instead of securing insurance through employment individuals will be able to purchase insurance independently (White House, 2007). What I would have done differently is that I would not have left that up to the citizens to figure out how to obtain insurance, but as a governing body we would create one standard health insurance that all Americans have access to regardless of socio economic status.

During President Barak Obama tenure, he too had to address Healthcare Reform. His way of handling the issue at hand was he came up with the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare. This Affordable Care Act would allow uninsured American to be able to afford insurance coverage, prevent insurance companies from refusing to insured individuals because of comorbidities. He also proposed to manage the rise in drug cost (Bauchner, 2016). This virtually is the exact proposal that President George W Bush made and President Obama just renamed it. What I would have done differently was to remove the penalty that was implemented on the individual tax return if that person chooses to remain uninsured.

On President Donald Trump’s agenda was also Affordable Care Act. How he handled this issue was to revoke and replace crucial parts of the Affordable Care Act, by so doing the fine for individuals who choose to remain uninsured was removed from their tax return, Medicaid was downsized and balanced out with government assisted insurance coverage (Kaplan & Pear, 2017).  What I would have done differently is instead of repealing the existing bill that was benefiting the middle and low- income class make amendment to ensure that Americans can afford insurance coverage and create an insurance coverage system that would benefit the American people getting medical and prescription coverage at an affordable rate.

References

Baucher, H. (2016). The Affordable Care Act and the Future of US Health Care. JAMA, 6(316),

492-493. doi:10.100/jama.2016.9872

Kaplan, T., Pear, R. (2017). House Passes Measure to Repeal and Replace the Affordable Care

Act. The New York Times. Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://smith4nj.

com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10NY-Times-5.14.2007-article-on-obamacare-vote.pdf

White House. (2007). State of the Union: Affordable, accessible, and flexible health coverage.

Retrieved November 30, 2020, from http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2007/initiatives/healthcare.html

Mental illness is a health issue whose attack is not on the body but the mind, in recent years mental illness has become an acceptable topic to discuss while in the past, having a mental illness meant suffering alone and in silence. The number of people screening with moderate to severe symptoms of depression and anxiety has continued to increase throughout 2020 and remains higher than rates prior to COVID-19 (Mental Health America , 2021). People are suffering and they are finally speaking out about it and I will say that is a testament to how our Presidents have highlighted the importance of speaking out about your mental illness and getting the help that you need and providing that help. In 2013 President Obama announced that $50 million of the funding will support nearly 200 community health centers in expanding the availability of services to individuals living with mental illness and/or substance use disorders (Ingoglia, 2013). The Biden administration followed that same initiative when he took office and allocated 2.5 Billion dollars in funding for the mental illness and addiction crisis the country now faces; $1.65 billion will go toward the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant, which gives the receiving states and territories money to improve already-existing treatment, and $825 million will be used by the states to deal specifically with mental health treatment services (Allen, 2021).

This nurse is an advocate for mental well-being, and believes that in order to heal the body you have to start with the mind. We learned early on in nursing school that the brain is the control station for every part of our body and in order for our different systems to complete their distinct tasks the brain must function properly. Our thought processes affect how our brain works, neuroscience has begun to uncover some of the intricate and less obvious relations between the mind and the brain, as investigative approaches from biochemistry, psychology, and genetics converge on an understanding of the physiology of mental illness (S., 1992). As a psych nurse I believe that they did the same thing that I would have done because the issue is that there are not enough mental health providers and so you have people suffering that are unable to get the help they need because providers are booked to capacity. The one thing that I would do differently is ensure that each state send yearly summaries of exactly how they are putting that money to use, and the effectiveness of the changes they made using that money. This is purely to hold each state accountable and ensure the money is being distributed to bringing a firm foundation for the treatment of mental illness.

References:

Allen, M. (2021, March 11). Exclusive: Biden directing $2.5B to address mental health and addiction crisis.Retrieved from AXIOS: https://www.axios.com/biden-funding-drug-mental-health-crisis-310d0250-cb6e-409c-8f30-9d73c3fd94a7.html

Ingoglia, C. (2013, December 11). Obama Administration Announces $100 Million in Mental Health Funding.Retrieved from National Council fot Mental Wellbeing : https://www.thenationalcouncil.org

Mental Health America . (2021). The State Of Mental Health In America. Retrieved from Mental Health America : https://mhanational.org/issues/state-mental-health-america

S., A. (1992). The Role of the Brain in Mental Illness. Retrieved from National Academies Press (US): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK234144/