NSG 4068 Week 3 Project – First Steps on Becoming a Grassroots Lobbyist/Advocate for Health Care Policy Brief with my Legislative Visit

During my legislative visit, I found that my legislative representative also opposed the AHCA. He has many reasons for voting against the AHCA. With the AHCA, there would have been up to 51 million people without insurance by the year 2026, which would be an increase from 28 million under the ACA (Norris, 2020). The elderly would most definitely be affected, as well as the lower income class. People with pre-existing conditions would be affected. This would include the elderly, disabled, and others with any pre-existing conditions (Engel, 2018). My legislative representative did not think this would be ethical or fair at all.

I found that my legislative representative also opposed the AHCA because insurance premiums and the cost of medical expenses would increase for many. Since ACA provided insurance for more Americans than ever in the United States, it was agreed that this was a big change for the people to have access to insurance. ACA was started in March 2010 and required everyone to have health coverage, or a penalty would be faced with income tax surcharges. This penalty was recently eliminated in 2019 by the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (Buchmueller et al., 2016). Since this was eliminated, my legislative representative felt that this was another reason that ACA was a better choice.

Medicaid is a primary source of healthcare for many Americans. I would be sure to speak with my legislative representative about this as I think it is very important. The AHCA would eliminate health care from many Americans by making cuts within the Medicaid program (Buchmueller et al., 2016). My legislative representative agrees that Medicaid cuts would definitely hurt many Americans. He doesn’t support the reduction of Medicaid funding. My legislative representative makes it aware that he believes in the use of Medicaid for the people who really need it, and it should not be taken for granted. With that being said, decreasing funds and other sources of cuts to Medicaid would affect many people’s healthcare in various ways.

Another concern I would speak with my legislative representative about is the fact that the pharmaceutical and insurance companies could profit if the AHCA went into effect. My legislative representative agrees that this is in fact, an issue that would have to be faced with the AHCA, and he opposes this as well. Many pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies have already increased costs that affect many Americans. Many Americans cannot afford their medications or their insurance premiums comfortably (Engel, 2018). This issue would become worse if the AHCA proposal was effective. The only ones that would benefit here would be the pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies. This would not be fair to the people who cannot afford these and to the elder who live on a fixed income. It would also cause a burden for single parents with children, children, and people with disabilities.

Last but not least, my legislative representative looked at various pros and cons of the AHCA. My legislature representative and I agree that there are more cons than pros for the American people. I can say that my legislative and I are glad that even though this bill passed in the House in 2017, it went no further once it reached the Senate (Norris, 2020). Health insurance and health reform will always be a topic in America that has its pros and cons. It is to our advantage to do what we think is best for all the American people who will be affected and not just a certain majority. My legislative representative agrees that with the AHCA, there are far too many cons. The prediction of the AHCA would have resulted in approximately 24 million additional Americans left uninsured by the year 2024 (Norris, 2020). After speaking to my legislative representative, I am pleased to see that he opposed the AHCA.