response to DQ 6.1
Need response to the below DQ 75-100 words with 1 scholarly source
Jorge
My team (C) selected the problem related to the increase in drug costs in the United States compared to other nations. The high cost of medication is one of the factors that influences the high costs of managing chronic diseases. According to a study carried out by (Cohen and Villarroel, 2015), 7.8% of adults in the United States did not take their medication according to the medical order, 15.1% asked their doctor for a low-cost medication, 1.6% bought medications in another country and 4.2% used alternative therapies. Other strategies used to save costs were to reduce the dose and frequency of the medication. The main risk factors for not taking prescription drugs are the lack of health insurance and poverty due to costs. This leads to a worse state of health, a poor quality of life, reduced productivity, increased complications, higher use of emergency rooms, hospitalizations and mortality, which makes the impact of the high costs of medications even more worrisome. According to (Beaugureau, 2017) in 2015, Americans spent 1,200 per capita on prescription drugs, the highest rate in the world. For example, the medicine Humira which is used for the Crohn in the United States costs 2,699 dollars for 28 days while in Switzerland $ 822 and in the United Kingdom $ 1,362. With all the above is important, address this issue to bring about changes by reducing the cost of medicines compared to other nations, which would improve the results of care.
When introducing the policy change, I would use the framework / model of the advocacy coalition, which is based on the assumption that there are a number of central ideas about causality, and the value of public policy; they build a coalition with interconnected interests. One can map the network of actors in the policy sector and advocate change, which occurs when ideas are adapted according to what is important and what is working at that particular time or period. In this case, the policy change is the culmination of the interaction of external shocks and changes in the political system, together with the success of the ideas suggested in the coalition, which causes the actors involved in the promotion to change the coalitions (Cerna, 2013). When implementing the model, one must keep in mind that coalition actors can have their own resources, strategies and beliefs. The idea is to reach a reasonable solution by reducing the political conflict to acceptable levels. Therefore, the focus is on convening coalitions, including legislators, interest groups and other parties with similar interests and convincing them about the causality and possible solution of the problem. It is necessary to obtain feedback from the coalition to ensure that different strategies and points of view are considered, to reconcile any differences in order to have common goals and ideals when advocating change. This would improve the commitment to political actions among the different coalition actors to pressure lawmakers to consider the problem and pass the policy to the law (Mason, Leavitt and Chaffee, 2013).
References
Beaugureau, M. (2017). Why Are Prescription Drugs More Expensive in the U.S. than in Other Countries? Retrieved from https://www.goodrx.com/blog/why-are-prescription-d…
Cerna, L. (2013). The nature of policy change and implementation: A review of different theoretical approaches. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/The%20Nature%20of%20…
Cohen, R. & Villarroel, M.A. (2015). Strategies Used by Adults to Reduce Their Prescription Drug Costs: United States, 2013. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db184…
Mason, D. J., Leavitt, J. K., & Chaffee, M. W. (2013). Policy and politics in nursing and healthcare, 6thEdition. London, LND: Elsevier Health Sciences
