Influence of Stakeholders on Policy - Essay Example

Medicare Part D drug benefit aims to reduce the cost of drugs for elderly patients via private insurance and stand-alone drug plans (Riley, 2012). In 2003, congress influenced the outcome of Medicare Part D Legislation by passing the Modernization Act (MMA) (Campbell & Morgan, 2006). One of the political reasons why they pass legislation that aims to reduce the cost of drugs for seniors is to promote themselves for the 2004 election.    A large part of the U.S. population is composed of senior citizens (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). As a result, most of the members of the Congress were re-elected.  As consumers, U.S. citizens are members of the constituency group. Drug companies, insurance companies, and pharmacy management companies are against Medicare Part D (Riley, 2012). To ensure the delay in passing the bill of Medicare Part D, drug companies, insurance companies, and pharmacy management companies were lobbying to support the U.S. legislators’ campaign funding (Sutherland, 2006; Heaney, 2006). In November 2006, only a few members of Congress supported Medicare Part D due to the high cost of drugs for seniors since the media started to talk about the weak points of Medicare Part D (Gaffney, 2012).    In 2006, the cost of out-of-pocket (OOP) medications was between $989 to $17,000 whereas the coverage gap was $3,400 in 2009 and $1,620 in 2010 (Riley, 2012). For this reason, passing the Medicare Part D legislation without changing some guidelines back in 2006 can lead to a serious long-term problem with healthcare expenditures. To avoid making the local citizens and constituents angry, the U.S. government is using strategies like prolonging the passing of the bills to support the implementation of the Medicare Part D legislation (Sutherland, 2006; Heaney, 2006). By doing so, some U.S. government officials can still benefit from the under-the-table offers of large-scale drug companies, insurance companies, and pharmacy management companies that are seriously against the implementation of Medicare Part D (Riley, 2012).   The case of Medicare Part D does not surprise me at all. It is not even a new strategy for government officials to come up with unrealistic healthcare plans just to win the political support of the local citizens. As common knowledge, politicians will do anything to win a seat in the congress or Senate. Read More