Reply to 2 discussion post, each reply one paragraph with 2 APAP references
Regardless of political affiliation, individuals often grow concerned when considering perceived competing interests of government and their impact on topics of interest to them. The realm of healthcare is no different. Some people feel that local, state, and federal policies and legislation can be either helped or hindered by interests other than the benefit to society.
Consider for example that the number one job of a legislator is to be re-elected. Cost can be measured in votes as well as dollars. Thus, it is important to consider the legislator’s perspective on either promoting or not promoting a certain initiative in the political landscape.
To Prepare:
Review the Resources and reflect on efforts to repeal/replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Consider who benefits the most when policy is developed and in the context of policy implementation.
Post #1 From Iran:
The best way to approach to work with legislators is explaining things that are easy to understand. Laureate Education (2018) noted that it is important to not use medical terminology so that they can understand. Legislators do not understand or know about medical terms that can help repeal or replace the ACA. In health care, it is important to try and provide value in understanding medical issues that can help reduce costs. Because legislators have no experience in health care, health care workers play a vital role in public health and whether or not certain actions that is happening at the government level can affect the ACA. ACA is designed to help legislators understand that health care is a right (Laureate Education, 2018). On the other hand, influencing health policies with legislators is a big problem. Depending on their view points, some people believe that health care is a privilege and some believe that it is a right. Unfortunately, health care workers should have a big say in deciding these issues and not to particularly only legislators because they understand the nature of health care. Legislators always seek to get re-elected. Therefore, they must align themselves that can sway the public in a way that they believe that legislator is the correct person for the job to reform health care.
Post #2 From Sarah:
Thinking like a politician requires being open-minded, looking past the issue itself, and weighing out other factors including what is going to work, what won’t work, and what will be the path with greatest benefits and less costs (Milstead, 2019, pp 51). Legislators are assumed to look at cost-benefit analysis and be reasonable. The Affordable Care Act passed without any republican signatures (Laureatte, 2018a). Timing is key as it was noted with the 2016 election with repealing or replacing the Affordable Care Act (Milstead, 2019, pp 39-40). Republicans saw an open door to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but after debate about what the negative consequences would be from the election, they backed off after looking at all the implementation issues that repealing or replacing the ACA would cause (Milstead, 2019, pp 40). Policymakers are not focused on how actual real people will be affected but focus on how those changes will affect their own re-election. When the political support is greater on one side, the legislation will be supported. Many issues including better mental health, social disparity, antibiotic resistant bacteria, universal health insurance for all, which the ACA began the process for, and climate change are all going to need to be addressed politically (Laureate, 2018b). Depending on timing and the majority of voting for the topic will depend on what the legislator focuses on for the outcome of the bill.
