Health Policy and Advanced Practice Nursing - Essay Example

Advocacy Role Polly Spann-Kershaw Tennessee In partial fulfillment of the requirements of NURS5001R53 health Care Policy Dr. Katherine Pendleton July 9, 2015 Online RODP-MSNs Advocacy Role Identified State issue The issue of lack of political will to stand for the needs of citizens makes it challenging for universal health insurance coverage which is a relevant social provision that fosters a guaranteed health care provision for people of all social status to be attained (Hood, 2013). It was in an attempt to bridging the gap between those who are insured and those not insured in Tennessee Governor William Haslam of Tennessee presented a proposal to the Senate, aimed at bringing insurance coverage to as many people as possible. The gap was to be bridged if the first phase of an advocacy had gone on through the “Insure Tennessee Proposal” presented to the Senate Health Committee (Schelzig, 2015). In the estimation of Governor William Haslam, the proposal, which was for the provision of health insurance coverage to the less privileged in society at no cost to the tax payer would have brought close to $2.8 billion to the state of Tennessee from the Federal government to insure up to 280,000 Tennessee residents from low-income households at a very low cost to the taxpayers. As indicated in the thesis statement, the issue of lack of political will to stand for the needs of citizens makes it challenging for universal health insurance coverage which is a relevant social provision that fosters a guaranteed health care provision for people of all social status to be attained. This means that the provision of healthcare should be no respecter of social status and so the proposal would have made it possible to provide health care to all residents without discriminating against their socioeconomic backgrounds. Analysis of Officials’ View on Issue Newman (2013) noted that the overall growth of society is directly connected to the state of health of people within it. Regrettably, the proposal, which was to bring insurance coverage to 280,000 Tennessee residents at no cost to the tax payer failed to go through the state Senate successfully due to officials’ view on the proposal. The officials whose views are referred to here were seven Republican senators against four who voted to kill the Insure Tennessee Proposal. In the view of these senators, they had failed to support the Insure Tennessee Proposal because they “complained about not having enough information about the plan before the session” (Boucher, 2015). There are several perspectives from which the officials’ views that they did not have enough information about the Insure Tennessee Proposal can be viewed. First, Schelzig (2015) observed that six of seven senators voting against the proposal are all insured under the Tennessee health care plans. The six senators are senators Joey Hensley, Frank Niceley, Brian Kelsey, Mike Bell, Kerry Roberts, and Rusty Crowe, all Republicans, voted against the measure yet they were under the state plan too (Schelzig, 2015). The fact that the senators have insurance and failed to show commitment to get others insured certainly raises an ethical question of whether these officials acted as such because the failure of the Insure Tennessee Proposal will not affect them directly. Another perspective for analyzing the officials’ view is their political will to support the Insure Tennessee Proposal. Analysts including Boucher (2015) have found a close relation between the Insure Tennessee Proposal and the Obamacare, which is a Democrat idea. This creates a perceived political tussle of a Democrat idea being championed by Republicans for the benefit of the former (Newman, 2013). With this in mind, it would be opinioned that the officials failed to support the Insure Tennessee Proposal, knowing that any credit from it would have gone to the other side of the political divide. Meanwhile, the Obamacare and for that matter Insure Tennessee Proposal would have been as new platforms to ensure that people get the kind of health insurance needed to meet their most immediate health needs. For this reason, politicizing the Insure Tennessee Proposal was not an appropriate action. Incidentally, the people who require more attention are those from the lower economic cadre, but the representatives seem to disregard what Governor Haslam had in mind (Mason, Leavitt, & Chaffee, 2013). Opinion and Justification Two major perspectives that could possibly have informed the decision of the Senators voting against the Insure Tennessee Proposal have been raised. These are ethical commitment and political willpower. From an ethical perspective, the fact that six out of seven senators voting against people getting insured have been insured has been questioned. Politically, questions have been raised whether the senators did not vote against the Insure Tennessee Proposal because of its relation with the Obamacare, which is a Democrat idea (Boucher, 2015). It would however be opined that the most critical factor influencing the decision of the senators was lack of political willpower and the fear that the Insure Tennessee Proposal would have scored political points for Democrats as part of the Obamacare (Flecther, 2015). The first justification to this opinion is related to the current political climate in the U.S where the country is gearing up for next year’s national elections. Meanwhile the area of healthcare is undeniably one aspect of governance that the ruling Democrat party led by President Barack Obama has given much attention to. For example the Kaiser Family Foundation has estimated that up to half the people buying insurance on their own at the introduction of the Obamacare were made eligible for subsidies (Cohn, 2013).As a way of preventing the political advantage of the Obamacare therefore, the Republican have been criticized for voting against most health related bills and proposals such as the Insure Tennessee Proposal that goes through Senate (Schelzig, 2015). Advocacy Plans As an APRN, there is the need to lead an advocacy aimed starting a national discourse on the need not to approach health issues such as the Insure Tennessee Proposal from political perspective. The main plan to get this advocacy enrolled is through the use of public education on the direct benefits of health insurance to the provision of healthcare. As lamented by Fletcher (2015), “Legislative rhetoric in a state that is nearly in a health crisis is too focused on politics and not policy or on reducing chronic disease, hospital executives say.” This situation described by Fletcher (2015) when allowed to continue will make the work of APRNs more difficult. This is because lack of insurance coverage would mean that preventive care cannot be achieved. To roll out the plan, various media platforms including national newspapers, websites of recognized state institutions and agencies will be furnished with detailed articles on the relationship between health insurance coverage and quality delivery of healthcare. The letters will be followed with personal forums among organized youth groups including university students. References Boucher, D. (2015). Insure Tennessees swift failure surprises Haslam. Retrieved July 20, 2015 from http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2015/02/05/haslam-embarrassing-fail-insure-tennessee/22953589/ Cohn, J. (2013). "The Big Savings Obamacare Critics Miss". The New Republic. Flecther, H. (2015). Hospital execs on edge after Insure Tennessee failure. Retrieved July 20, 2015 from http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2015/04/15/hospital-execs-edge-insure-tennessee-failure/25855025/ Goudreau, K. A., & Smolenski, M. C. (2013). Health policy and advanced practice nursing: Impact and implications. Nashville, TN: Springer Publishing Company. Hood, L. (2013). Leddy & peppers conceptual bases of professional nursing. New York: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Mason, D. J., Leavitt, J. K., & Chaffee, M. W. (2013). Policy and politics in nursing and healthcare. Memphis: Elsevier Health Sciences. Newman, P. I. (2013). The contributing factors to the nursing faculty shortage: Nursing Faculty Shortage. Franklin, TN: Xlibris Corporation. Schelzig, E. (2015). 6 of 7 who killed Insure Tennessee are on state health plan. Retrieved from http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2015/02/05/killed-insure-tennessee-state-health-plan/22927221/Appendices: Contacts of Officials important in this advocacy Contact name Telephone Governor Haslam (615) 741-2001 Tennessee healthcare campaign team (615) 227-7500 Head, Tennessee Nurses Association (615) 254-0303 John Dreyzehner, Department of Health (615) 741-3111 Mark Norris, leader of senate majority (615) 741-1967 Read More