Prescription Drug Coverage

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Programming

To gain current, differing ideological viewpoints on aspects of healthcare reform I watched three national news programs and read two newspaper articles from a national and local paper between 2/24/10 and 2/28/10. I watched “Special Report” freom Fox News on 2/24. On 2/25 I watched “World News Tonight” on ABC where the healthcare summit was reviewed. I also read the article “White House punts on key cost-saving move” from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from 2/25. On 2/27 I read “Democrats push forward on healthcare” from the LA Times. Finally, on 2/28 I watched “State of the Union” on CNN at noon.

Policy issue

The policy issue I have identified is prescription drug coverage. This interests me because prescription drugs are a major part of modern medicine. They serve as compliments to medical procedures; substitutes for surgery or other procedures; and new treatments where there were none previously (Oliver, Lee & Lipton, 2004). As the medical community’s understanding of the human body increases the possibility for new pharmaceutical interventions will increase.

Prescription drug coverage is an important issue because many rely on the day to day help they receive from prescription drugs. Furthermore, the elderly and disabled populations are particularly reliant on prescription drugs and have some of the least means to purchase them (Huh, Rice & Ettner, 2008). The combination of limited income and high drug costs can cause people such as seniors to take risks with their health by trying to extend their medications or go without them.

Political Ideology

I feel my political ideology most closely aligns with classical conservatism as described by Karger and Stoesz. This is because classical conservati...

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... Varasteh, L., Levin, R., Nan, L., et al. (2009). The effect of Medicare Part D coverage on drug use and cost sharing among seniors without prior drug benefits. Health Affairs,28(2), w305-w316. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.28.2.w305.

Shea, D., Terza, J., Stuart, B., & Briesacher, B. (2007). Estimating the effects of prescription drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries. Health Services Research, 42(3P1), 933-949. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6773.2006.00659.x.

Yuting, Z., Donohue, J., Newhouse, J., & Lave, J. (2009). The effects of the coverage gap on drug spending: A closer look at Medicare Part D. Health Affairs, 28(2), w317-w325. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.28.2.w317.

Zhang, J., Yin, W., Sun, S., & Alexander, G. (2008). The impact of the Medicare Part D prescription benefit on generic drug use. JGIM: Journal of General Internal Medicine, 23(10), 1673-1678. doi:10.1007/s11606-008-0742-6.

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