Presidential Agendas and Population Health- Emphasizing Prevention, Wellness, and Equity

Presidential Agendas and Population Health- Emphasizing Prevention, Wellness, and Equity

The opioid epidemic is an example of a health topic that rises to the presidential agenda level. Reports indicate opioids account for two out of three drug overdose-related deaths in the United States of America (USA). Over the past years, presidents have adopted different strategies to combat this problem. President Obama signed the 21^st Century Act to fund his proposal to fight the opioid epidemic. President Obama released new guidelines for opioid prescriptions for patients with chronic pain. He provided $11 million to enable States to acquire naloxone, the opioid antidote, and train health workers on how to administer it (The White House, n.d.). Furthermore, policies requiring training on the appropriate prescription of opioids were formulated.

President Trump aimed to combat prescription and demand. This entailed educating Americans on the risks of opioid abuse and misuse. Furthermore, efforts to identify and shut down the illegal supply chain were intensified. He allocated $1.8 billion to help fight the epidemic (Wallace, 2020). President Biden aimed at increasing funding by $125 billion to combat the epidemic. Pharmaceutical companies are to be held accountable for the problem. In addition, he will work in concert with the medical sector to minimize overprescribing (Wallace, 2020). Biden aims at stopping the smuggling of heroin and fentanyl into the USA. Furthermore, he aims at reforming the criminal justice system to avert imprisonment due to substance use alone.

I can apply different strategies to combat the opioid epidemic. The first strategy is addiction treatment. This can be achieved by partial opioid receptor agonists and full agonists, such as buprenorphine and methadone, respectively (Gellad et al., 2017). The second strategy is using alternative pain mitigation methods. They include non-pharmacological approaches such as acupuncture. Furthermore, non-opioid medications should be prescribed. The third strategy is setting up a risk mitigation framework. This will involve recording the type of opioid drug dispensed, its potency, dosage, and other drugs such as sedative-hypnotics. This information should be easily accessed. This will help to identify an individual’s risk of overdose. Thereafter, an individualized prevention intervention is adopted.

References

Gellad, W. F., Good, C. B., & Shulkin, D. J. (2017). Addressing the Opioid Epidemic in the United States: Lessons From the Department of Veterans Affairs. JAMA Internal Medicine, 177(5), 611–612. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2017.0147

The White House (n.d.). Improving Health for All Americans. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-record/health-care

Wallace, E. (2020). Where Biden and Trump Stand on 11 Key Healthcare Issues. https://www.healthline.com/health-news/where-biden-and-trump-stand-on-11-key-healthcare-issues#1

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Presidential Agendas
Rather than focus on the treatment of chronic disease, policies that influence population health tend to emphasize prevention and wellness, the reduction or elimination of waste and the eradication of health disparities based on race, ethnicity, language, income, gender, sexual orientation, disability and other factors. The reasoning is that good health belongs to the whole, not just an individual. (New York State Dept. of Health, n.d.)

Presidential Agendas and Population Health- Emphasizing Prevention, Wellness, and Equity

Regardless of political affiliation, every citizen has a stake in healthcare policy decisions. Hence, it is little wonder that healthcare items become such high-profile components of presidential agendas and are also hotly debated agenda items.

Consider a topic (mental health, HIV, opioid epidemic, pandemics, obesity, prescription drug prices, or many others) that rises to the presidential level. How did the current and previous presidents handle the problem? What would you do differently?

Reference:
New York State Department of Health. (n.d.). Making New York the healthiest state: Achieving the triple aim. Retrieved June 21, 2021 from https://www.health.ny.gov/events/population_health_summit/docs/what_is_population_health.pdf

To Prepare:

Review the Resources and reflect on the importance of agenda setting.
Consider how federal agendas promote healthcare issues and how these healthcare issues become agenda priorities.

Post your response to the discussion question: Consider a population health topic that rises to the presidential agenda level. How did two recent presidents handle the problem? What would you do differently?