Reply to the recent discussion post that you have written it to me 2 days ago.

Please use two Journal article references with doi with each reply

-Reply to professor:

You discuss a recent bill with S.596. What method would you use to gain support of key stakeholders related to this bill? What is a useful strategy to overcome actual or potential challenges in supporting this bill?

-Reply to Leizl Flores Bautista-Malto

For our discussion this week, I’d like to introduce HR 2468 (116th): School-Based Allergies and Asthma Management Program Act. This legislation is both relevant and unique. The goal of this legislation, when the act was completed in 2019, was to ensure that proper planning and amenities are available in the school nurse’s office for our students who suffer from asthma. Part of the program’s goal is to teach school staff how to manage and treat asthma and allergies, administer medication in an emergency, reduce trigger factors, and understand what causes an allergy attack.

Based on the study, over six million children in America have asthma, which is one of the main reasons kids are absent from school. Noted on the proposed legislation, it aims to encourage schools to create plans to support children with lower airway disorders, such as asthma, and to help control their conditions in the school, according to the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services. Unfortunately, most schools do not have such plans in place and are therefore unprepared for emergencies. These plans will allow students to concentrate more on their studies while at school and also help to improve children’s health.

According to the legislation, the Department of Health and affiliated agencies must award grants to states to train nurses assigned to schools to ensure that they are equipped to diagnose and identify students with an asthma attacks. This person must have a specific plan that is based on the regulations set by the government agency. Fortunately, for the sake of public health, we have patient advocacy organizations like AAAAI that collaborate with HHS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to put this framework in place.

To summarize,  in my opinion, this legislation is critical for the welfare of our children. It emphasizes the importance of improving the health of our children and school-related outcomes for children with asthma, which necessitates using school-based partnerships that focus on integrated care coordination among families, clinicians, and school nurses.

Reference : 

Allergy&AstmaNetwork.School-Based Allergies and Asthma Management Program Becomes Law!.https://allergyasthmanetwork.org/news/action-alert…

H.R.2468 – School-Based Allergies and Asthma Management Program Act116th Congress. www Congress.gov (2019-2020). H.R.2468 – 116th Congress (2019-2020): School-Based Allergies and Asthma Management Program Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology. The School-Based Allergy, Asthma and Anaphylaxis Management Program Comprehensive Asthma Educational Resources.
https://www.aaaai.org/Tools-for-the-Public/School-…

-Reply to Danielle Collins

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and provide information on a health policy of my choice. I will give a brief history of this act as well as provide background information and describe any social determinants most affected by this policy. This paper post will give my opinion of evidence-based support. I chose to discuss the Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act.

The Affordable Prescriptions for Patient Act was sponsored by John Cornyn, a senior Senator for Texas, to amend the Federal Trade Commission Act that allows product hopping. The bill seeks to prohibit product hopping culture among drug manufacturers by authorizing the Federal Trade Commission to enforce the law, including imposing limits on biological product patents. Product hopping among drug manufacturers is the practice of switching to follow-on-product with the later expiring patent following the expiry of the specific drug or biological product patent (Carrier, 2021). The proposed bill is based on the presumption that product hopping among drug manufacturers occurs upon noticing that Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received a go-ahead to market a competing biosimilar or generic version. To block this, drug manufacturers withdraw the drug from the market and sell a follow-on-product (Congress.Gov, 2023).

The S.150: Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act of 2023 addresses the high cost of prescription drugs, which has been a huge burden on Americans seeking health services. On average, Americans spend $1300 per individual in a year on prescription drugs (Langreth, 2022). While the insurance and government cover part of the bill, patients are still burdened by the high drug prices through increased insurance premium payments. The high drug prices affect the group unable to afford insurance (Baker, 2017). This leaves them with an option of paying in cash for medication, leading to high expenditure on medication, non-adherence, and death (CIDSA, 2020). The lower-income earners who are beneficiaries of Medicare are also affected by the high cost of drugs, with Black, Latino, and 65 years and older adults experiencing more affordability problems (Taraz et al., 2022). The bill addresses the social determinants of health, including unemployment, socioeconomic status, and lack of support that limit people’s access to medication. The prohibition of product hopping among drug manufacturers will encourage competition, leading to a reduction in prescription drug prices. This means more people can afford medication, reducing instances of non-adherence and deaths.

The report by CIDSA (2020) established that high drug prices are among the main causes of non-adherence to medication in patients. Medication adherence is defined as patients following instructions by healthcare providers (CIDSA, 2020). Unaffordable drug prices impair medication adherence, leading to cost-related non-adherence. The high prescription drug prices cause non-adherence, increasing medical spending on the treatment of patients’ conditions. Many Americans, especially the ones with chronic conditions, are likely to skip or delay taking recommended medicines because of the high cost of drugs (Taraz et al., 2022). Complications resulting from unaffordable problems lead to negative health outcomes or premature death. For example, the key findings show that by 2030, on average, 112,000 seniors are likely to die prematurely yearly due to unaffordable drugs and cost-sharing prices. With seniors unable to afford their medications, it is estimated that Medicare will spend an additional $17.7 billion yearly because of health complications (CIDSA, 2020).

The bill on affordable prescriptions for patients is further supported by Ozawa et al. (2019) study that access to affordable medicines is critical for preventing greater pain and suffering, reducing the financial burden of care, shortening illness’ duration and averting potential disabilities and deaths. These findings conform to the NHIS cross-sectional household interview survey-based study that high drug prices lead to disparities in access to medication in populations (Taraz et al., 2022). The two studies supported the need for affordable medications to ensure all people have access to complete health services, which include essential medications, without being financially overburdened.

Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act of 2023 intends to prohibit product hopping in drug manufacturers. It is an effective bill that will promote competition and make drugs affordable. This will reduce access to medication disparities and improve the health outcomes of all consumers in the entire United States healthcare system.

References

Baker, D. E. (2017). High Drug Prices: So Who Is to Blame? Hospital Pharmacy, 52(1), 5-6. 10.1310/hpj5201-5

Carrier, M. A. (2021). A Simple Solution to the Problem of ‘Product Hopping.’ Harvard Health Policy Review, 1-3. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_i…

CIDSA. (2020, November 18). High Drug Prices and Patient Costs: Millions of Lives and Billions of Dollars Lost. Council for Informed Drug Spending Analysis: https://www.cidsa.org/publications/xcenda-summary#:~:text=High%20drug%20prices%20and%20annual,higher%20medical%20spend%2C%20and%20death.

Congress.Gov. (2023, January 3). S.150 – Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act of 2023. Congress.Gov: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senat…

Langreth, R. (2022, July 19). Why Prescription Drug Prices in the US Are So High. Bloomberg:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-19…

Ozawa, S., Shankar, R., Leopold, C., & Orubu, S. (2019). Access to medicines through health systems in low- and middle-income countries. Health Policy and Planning, 34(3), iii1ii3. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czz119

Taraz, W., Finegold, K., Sheingold, S., Lew, N. D., & Sommers, B. D. (2022). Prescription Drug Affordability among Medicare Beneficiaries (Issue Brief No. HP-2022-03. US Department of Health and Human Services: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents…