DUE FRIDAY 9AM

Due Friday 8am

What influence does public opinion have on health care policy? Provide a recent poll or news article on healthcare policy illustrating the power of public opinion to affect policy.  300 words

Respond to the forum post bellow. 200 words (MATHEW)

For this week’s topic I chose to write about public opinion on Health Care policy and its influence on policy. During this election cycle, it can be considered one of the hottest topics and one that could break a potential candidate. I found a recent news article with poll results from the Kaiser Family Foundation which discusses how important Health Care is to the American voter. The poll conducted between August 18-24 2016, asked registered voters, how important Health Care is to them and to rate the priority from top priority, important, not too important or not at all.

With less than a month away from the election, these registered voters were asked about the prioritization they would give to health care when it came to this year’s presidential campaign. Of the results, two-thirds of the voters say that Medicare and access to affordable health care should be the top priorities that the candidates should be discussing. (Kaiser) When it comes to health care, the results are also showing that a larger portion of voters trust candidate Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump when it comes to dealing with the issues facing the country in regards to health care.

Opinions on health care issues is going to be one of the biggest factors when it comes to policy, due to its large support. Candidate Clinton is on the right track to gain and keep voter support for her election because of her stance on health care. Candidate Donald Trump will have to change his tactics on health care issues if he wants more support for his election. Of course we all know that actions speak louder than words when it comes to any election. No matter which candidate is elected, his or hers first actions to health care is going to define the rest of their term as president. If the American people do not see results when it comes to this matter, public opinion of the president and job rating will make a significant decrease in ratings. Which will ultimately decrease their chances of re-election.

 

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: August 2016 | The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. (n.d.). retrieved from http://kff.org/global-health-policy/poll-finding/kaiser-health-tracking-poll-august-2016/

POST 2 (SPENSER)

Public outcry has proven to be a powerful tool in our democratic nation. The Veterans Health Administration was recently marred with one of the ugliest and shaming scandals in recent history. Without the voice of the American public, veterans across America would still be waiting for urgent health care.

    Ground Zero for the VA scandal was in Phoenix, AZ where reportedly 40 veterans died while awaiting care (Baker 2016).   The associated press released a report courtesy of (Norcross 2015) stating that from August 2013 through February of 2014, nearly 894,000 appointments were delayed longer than one month - falling to adhere to their own set standards. Increasing the disdain, nearly 232,000 of those appointments were delayed for more than 60 days.  Investigations were launched immediately in response to the allegations. Once the investigations were complete, federal law makers insisted that the findings be made public. In December of 2014, President Barack Obama signed legislation requiring the VA inspector general to release his reports within three days of completion.  The transparency of the investigations created public resentment leading to several of the VA’s top executives resigning within a matter of weeks (Sinema 2014).

    Members of the House and Senate worked tirelessly to restructure the VA in a timely manner in response to the tremendous pressure from the public. Thousands of letters flooded local, state, and federal government offices expressing their disgust as a result of the VA’s conduct. Veterans used news agencies and social media to tell their stories, #End The VA Backlog began to trend on Facebook and Twitter.  As a result, Congress was able to work across party lines to fund the Veterans Choice Program. This program allows for veterans to seek care outside of the traditional VA channels to avoid extensive wait times.

 

    The VA scandal exploded into one of the most sickening stories surrounding healthcare. However, our government acted quicker than imaginable in response to the accusations. The American public applied such immense pressure that Mitch Mcconnel, Harry Reid, Ted Cruz, and Elizabeth Warren all signed the same bill in support of each other. Only the public’s overwhelming outcry could bring the far political left and right together -in unison- to sign legislation and appropriate funds to fix a broken system.

 

Works Cited:

    Baker, K. (2016, Mar 03). VA wait times manipulated. The News Journal Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy2.apus.edu/docview/1802212856?accountid=8289

POST3

Using concepts and terms from the readings, compare and contrast the 2004 and 2012 presidential election campaign tactics by reviewing one Democratic ad and one Republican ad from each election

The first as I used was for the 2004 campaign for the republican party Busch. It is a television commercial from the website "the living room candidate". The ad campaign strategy used here is one showing how we are going to be safer and stronger as a country. The ad starts by telling our issues we are fighting through being 9/11 and the recession. The strategy shows how Busch is telling us we will be safer and it has American flag in the back as well as our firefighters and faces of Americans. The slogan is "steady leadership in times of changes". This campaign in my interpretation is saying we are becoming stronger and safer and defeating the issues. Vote for Busch and we will be safer and stronger and overcome the issues we face with national security and the recession. The images in the back show that Busch is for the people and our armed forces and firefighters and police force. It comes across as very republican and ready to fight the war on terrorism. In the readings it says that many presidential commercials are negative but this one was very positive and did not attack the opposing side. The readings also tell us that republicans are more for the military. I see that very much so in this ad. With the American flag throughout the video and our firefighters in the  background. This ad is saying that Busch is focusing more on international issues and security issues.

Link

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2004/safer-stronger

The democratic ad I chose for the 2012 Obama campaign was one that focused more on inland issues and job issues. The commercial again is positive and does not focus on the opposing side. It  focuses just on business owners and creating jobs. Obama is saying in this ad that he wants to create more jobs by encouraging the people to support businesses in America. He says that he wants to make businesses stronger so we can continue to advance in technology and build better roads and bridges. Their is images of business owners and construction workers in the back ground. It is very different from the Busch ad. It focuses on completely different issues. Their is not images of the flag or our firefighters or troops in the background to show that support. In the readings it says that Democrats often support same sex marriage and legalization of drugs and equal rights to illegals as well as every person. I don't see any of that in this ad. I see the ad is just saying that Obama intends to create  more jobs and focus on making businesses stronger.

Link

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2012/always

I believe that that both ads are positive but they address entirely different issues. They are both strong ads. I know that in this current election their are many negative ads. Especially ones that Hillary has put out against Trump. I think that they would do better to put out more positive ads.

Amber

Works cited

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/