Health Policy

President George W. Bush is credited with implementation of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA), but President Bill Clinton is the one who put issue of prescription drugs on the political agenda, forcing lawmakers to take notice of the problem. The bill was signed into law on December 8, 2003 and provided better prescription drug coverage to seniors, gave subsidies to health maintenance organizations (HMO), insurance companies and gave private plans the authorization to compete with Medicare. These changes represented the largest policy change in Medicare since it's implementation in 1965 and caused a controversy like no other. (Henley, 2004)

Necessary Changes and Main Provisions

Recognizing the need to help alleviate some of the financial burdens the elderly population were experiencing due to the high cost of purchasing prescription medication, changes to the Medicare policy were considered a necessity. An overhaul of Medicare would reverse this; create affordable prescription medication, better and more affordable healthcare plans for seniors. (Walsh, 2002)

President Bush believed that by reforming the Medicare policy, he would be keeping the promise to help take care of our seasoned American citizens by offering something they had never had, an affordable prescription drug plan through a prescription drug discount card and better healthcare coverage. Slated to take effect in January 2004, the prescription discount card would reduce the out of pocket expenses for medication gradually and become fully effective in 2006. Mr. Bush stated that the option to choose from a variety of healthcare plans was a needed consumer friendly decision for seniors to give them to pick the plan that would best suit their needs. (Remarks to Senior Citizens in Miami, Florida, 2003)

Almost instantaneous, seniors went from being the largest age group most unlikely to have health insurance to being the age group most likely to be insured. The goal to modernize Medicare for seniors was achieved, but by doing so, the Medicare trust fund has been severely impacted. Estimated to be bankrupt by 2024, Medicare will no longer be able to do what it was intended to do, help to sustain retired American citizens. (Harsanyi,

2012).

Agenda setters and influence

According to Longest (2010), agenda setting plays an important role in the policymaking process as it illustrates the development of specific issues, how they came into play and identifying the next step.

There were several agenda setters for the new Medicare policy, senior citizens, pharmaceutical companies, the media, politicians, etc. Senior citizens and the media were very instrumental in helping to set the stage as the policy concerned senior citizens the most and the media's portrayal of the information swayed public's opinion. Seniors were