Legislative Process and Healthcare Lobbying Essay Example

Introduction

Nurses have the potential to influence healthcare policies and politics in the United States significantly. They are obligated morally and professionally to engage in the legislative process that affects their patient population (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2013). Through politics, they can advocate for their patients to improve the delivery of healthcare (Oestberg, 2012). Unfortunately, lack of awareness, inadequate skills and lack of opportunities has limited nurse participation in such activities. Time and resources are not adequately provided to facilitate sufficient contributions in politics (Oestberg, 2012). To counter such obstacles, nurses can partner with other medical professions like physicians through interdisciplinary teamwork to work toward redesigning the healthcare system. Most policies are made by people with little or no experience with healthcare and consequently, need guidance by experts.

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The Healthcare Legislative Process

It is important that nurses are involved in the legislative process as healthcare policy advocates. They are allowed to pitch their ideas to a policymaker through a group that supports a specific healthcare related cause or through their hospital's research department (Oestberg, 2012). The Member of Congress that receives the idea can, therefore, decide to either sponsor the bill or pass it on to other Congress members who are interested. These legislators need support and advice during the drafting of the bill and nurses can offer their expertise (Oestberg, 2012). After the bill has been introduced to the Senate, it is assigned to a committee which can be further divided into subcommittees. The committee is made up of unbiased members who keenly review the draft and can decide to stop the process by taking no affirmative action, approve the bill without amendments or pass a report of a significantly revised draft with amendments (Marmor, 2017). Nurses can follow and monitor the progress by requesting the assigned number of the bill and communicating through a congressional office via newsletters or surfing the internet for updates (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2013).

The third step involves hearings that educate the public and the other legislators about the subject and associated issues concerning the bill. Nurses can participate at these hearings by providing written or verbal testimony as input to the content (Oestberg, 2012). After the hearings, the subcommittee makes changes according to the conclusions made before recommending the bill to the full committee. The bill can die at the markup stage if the subcommittee votes against reporting to the full committee or can get passed on to the Senate. It is accompanied with an overview of the purpose, scope, costs and its effect on current laws. At the floor-action stage, the bill is placed on a calendar for debate and discussion to educate uncommitted legislators before a vote on the passage is taken (Marmor, 2017). Both houses have to approve it before it is signed into law by compromising and creating a final bill. Finally, the identical bill is sent to the president for a veto.

Child Immunization

The American Academy of Pediatrics worked together with vaccine advocates to draft legislation that would reinstate child care immunization mandate in Ohio for the House Bill 536 (Borchardt, 2018). The law brackets introducing immunization for children in day care centers and preschools because Ohio is the only state without immunization policies in licensed pre-kindergarten settings approved by the state (Borchardt, 2018). It provides that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should set an immunization schedule before allowed attendance in such settings while maintaining exemptions for religious and personal reasons. The existing law provides that parents should submit the child's medical form to their child care provider while the bill states that there should be an added space to indicate specific immunizations and must have a physician's signature (Borchardt, 2018). According to a previously passed bill, pharmacists and pharmacy interns are allowed to administer some immunizations and can sign the form.

The supporters of the bill argue that child care providers will be able to identify the source of an outbreak in their centers and quickly deal with the situation (Borchardt, 2018). They are also able to communicate with involved parents by giving them advice on the importance of missing vaccinations. These vaccines are also meant to save money spent on communicable diseases by both the state and respective parents because sometimes treatments take a lot of time (Borchardt, 2018). However, the conserved population against vaccinations feel that they would be victimized and their children would be separated from others to prevent the spread of the diseases. Even though the bill gives exceptions to the personal reasons, it would still expose them to unwanted attention and unwarranted arguments with those that don't agree with their decisions. I support the bill because outbreaks of communicable diseases like mumps in Ohio are exceptionally higher than the rest of the other states (Borchardt, 2018). These vaccines are safe in the small doses used and can save a lot of lives (Borchardt, 2018).

Conclusion

Despite the many challenges facing healthcare policymakers, they should be recognized for their efforts to improve existing policies and make new ones. It is crucial for all nurses to be involved in pushing the states to improve the delivery of health services and watching the progress of each legislative process. Expert opinions are important in giving directions to legislators because they lack the needed knowledge on sensitive topics concerning the health departments. This can be seen when the American Academy of Pediatrics and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are working together with the sponsors to pass the House Bill 536 that will ensure all children in daycare centers are immunized. This is a great first step to revolutionizing the healthcare system.

References

Borchardt, J. (2018). Bill would require vaccines for Ohio children in daycare. Cleveland Paper.

Burkhardt, M. A., & Nathaniel, A. (2013). Ethics and issues in contemporary nursing. Nelson Education.

Marmor, T. R. (2017). The politics of Medicare. Routledge.

Oestberg F. (2012). Policy and politics: why nurses should get involved. Nursing;42(12): 46-49.