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NURS 6050 Agenda Comparison Grid
In this Assignment, you will analyze recent presidential healthcare agendas. You also will prepare a fact sheet to communicate the importance of a healthcare issue and the impact on this issue of recent or proposed policy.
To Prepare:
Review the agenda priorities of the current/sitting U.S. president and at least one previous presidential administration.
Tip: You can locate presidential agenda information by searching Google for your health topic and the president. For example, mental health Obama presidential agenda.
Select an issue related to healthcare that was addressed by two U.S. presidential administrations (current and previous).
Consider how you would communicate the importance of a healthcare issue to a legislator/policymaker or a member of their staff for inclusion on an agenda.
Use your Week 1 Discussion post to help with this assignment.
The Assignment: (1- to 2-page Comparison Grid, 1-Page Analysis, and 1-page narrative) with a title page. This is an APA paper. Use 2-3 course resources and at least 2 outside resources.
Part 1: Agenda Comparison Grid
Use the Agenda Comparison Grid Template found in the Learning Resources and complete Part 1: Agenda Comparison Grid based on the current/sitting U.S. president and the previous president, and their agendas related to the population health concern you selected. Be sure to address the following:
Identify and provide a brief description of the population health concern you selected.
Explain how each of the presidential administrations approached the issue.
Identify the allocation of resources that the presidents dedicated to this issue.
Part 2: Agenda Comparison Grid Analysis
Using the information you recorded in Part 1: Agenda Comparison Grid on the template, complete the Part 2: Agenda Comparison Grid Analysis portion of the template, by addressing the following:
Which administrative agency (like HHS, CDC, FDA, OHSA) would most likely be responsible for helping you address the healthcare issue you selected and why is this agency the most helpful for the issue?
How do you think your selected healthcare issue might get on the presidential agenda? How does it stay there?
An entrepreneur/champion/sponsor helps to move the issue forward. Who would you choose to be the entrepreneur/champion/sponsor (this can be a celebrity, a legislator, an agency director, or others) of the healthcare issue you selected and why would this person be a good entrepreneur/ champion/sponsor? An example is Michael J. Fox is champion for Parkinson’s disease.
Part 3: Fact Sheet
Using the information recorded on the template in Parts 1 and 2, develop a 1-page fact sheet that you could use to communicate with a policymaker/legislator or a member of their staff for this healthcare issue. Be sure to address the following:
Summarize why this healthcare issue is important and should be included in the agenda for legislation.
Justify the role of the nurse in agenda setting for healthcare issues.
Assignment document should include:
Title page
Introductory paragraph
Agenda comparison grid and analysis
Fact sheet
Summary/conclusions
References
use 3 of these references and use 2 other from outside sources to be less than 5 years and no wikipidea, professional references only
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Enhancing Environmental Health Content in Nursing Practice, Pope, A. M., Snyder, M. A., & Mood, L. H. (Eds.). (n.d.). Nursing health, & environment Links to an external site.: Strengthening the relationship to improve the public’s health.
USA.gov. (n.d.). A-Z index of U.S. government departments and agencies Links to an external site.. Retrieved September 20, 2018, from https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/a
USA.gov. (n.d.). Branches of the US government Links to an external site.. https://www.usa.gov/branches-of-government
The White House. (n.d.). The cabinet Links to an external site.. https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/cabinet
Very important to use APA style (7). 0 plagiarism or AI
use template attached
USW1 NURS 6050 Agenda Comparison Grid Template
Agenda Comparison Grid Assignment Template for Part 1 and Part 2
Part 1: Agenda Comparison Grid
Use this Agenda Comparison Grid to document information about the population health/healthcare issue you selected and the presidential agendas. By completing this grid, you will develop a more in depth understanding of your selected issue and how you might position it politically based on the presidential agendas.
You will use the information in the Part 1: Agenda Comparison Grid to complete the remaining Part 2 and Part 3 of your Assignment.
| Identify the Population Health concern you selected. | ||
| Describe the Population Health concern you selected. | ||
| Administration (President Name) | ||
| Explain how each of the two presidential administrations approached the issue. | ||
| Identify the allocations of resources that the current and previous presidents dedicated to this issue. | ||
Part 2: Agenda Comparison Grid Analysis
Using the information you recorded in Part 1: Agenda Comparison Grid, complete the following to document information about the population health/healthcare issue you selected
| Administration | |
| Which administrative agency (like HHS, CDC, FDA, OHSA) would most likely be responsible for helping you address the healthcare issue you selected? Why is this agency the most helpful? | |
| How do you think your selected healthcare issue might get on the presidential agenda? How does it stay there? | |
| Who would you choose to be the entrepreneur/ champion/sponsor (this can be a celebrity, a legislator, an agency director, or others) of the healthcare issue you selected? An example is Michael J. Fox a champion for Parkinson’s disease. |
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NURS 6050 Agenda Comparison Grid Questions Answered
Access To Affordable Healthcare Through the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Instructor’s Name
Course Name
Date
Access To Affordable Healthcare Through the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Healthcare access and affordability are still key concerns in US healthcare policy, with subsequent administrations making efforts to reform towards better coverage and reduced disparities. High-priced medical care and insurance coverage still constrain access, especially for low-income earners, racial minorities, and those with chronic medical conditions. Accordingly, millions of people are still uninsured, generating avoidable health burdens and economic demands on the healthcare system. Presidential administrations set national healthcare policy by guiding resources, conceptualizing policy frameworks, and lobbying for legislative action. Comparing recent administrations’ efforts to tackle healthcare access offers excellent insights into changing tactics, political adversity, and policy effects. Further, recognizing how such matters are positioned and retained on the presidential agenda reflects interplays of citizen opinion, political lobbying, and healthcare leadership. This paper compares the healthcare agendas of the Trump, Biden, and Obama administrations, with special attention to increasing affordable healthcare access.
Part 1: Agenda Comparison Grid
Population Health Issue: Access to affordable healthcare through the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Describe the population health concern you selected
Access to affordable healthcare is a central population health concern because it directly shapes health outcomes, quality of life, and economic stability. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), passed in 2010, sought to address high rates of uninsurance, gaps in coverage, and discriminatory practices such as denying insurance for preexisting conditions. In states that extended Medicaid, the uninsured rate of trauma patients fell by 16 %, from 22.7% to 6.8%.9 Cancer screening was significantly enhanced, resulting in earlier stages at initial diagnosis. For instance, head and neck cancer patients in Medicaid expansion states exhibited a 25% decrease in time to treatment beginning. (Neiman et al., 2021). In the years preceding the adoption of the ACA, approximately 14-16% of Americans (of every age group) were uninsured. By 2023, the percentage of Americans without insurance had dropped to a historic low of 7.7% (Ortaliza & Cox, 2024). However, despite progress, disparities remain: millions of Americans remain uninsured or underinsured, especially in states that opted not to expand Medicaid. Rising healthcare costs and premium affordability also continue to challenge access. As healthcare access underpins preventive care, chronic disease management, and emergency responsiveness, the ACA and its evolving implementation remain critical to advancing equity and protecting population health.
Obama Administration (2009-2017)
President Obama made healthcare reform his top priority as the basis of his domestic policy. President Obama’s administration enacted the ACA in 2010, symbolizing the most substantial healthcare reform since Medicare and Medicaid (Ortaliza & Cox, 2024). The plan focused on growing Medicaid, establishing state and national marketplaces for insurance, and enacting mandates for expanded coverage. It also barred insurers from excluding coverage for conditions that existed before coverage and required essential coverage. President Obama prioritized access expansion while still trying to balance costs, although political opposition generated constant obstacles.
Resource Allocation
Significant federal funding was devoted to developing healthcare, covering Medicaid expansion, and funding subsidies. By 2016, 31 states had adopted Medicaid expansion, with 100% of federal matching funds covering new enrollees initially, then down to 90%. Billions were spent on outreach and navigators to assist with enrollment.
Biden Administration (2021-2025).
Approach
Biden’s regime enhanced the ACA, extending subsidies from the American Rescue Plan and Inflation Reduction Act to render insurance more accessible (Ortaliza et al., 2024). His policy focused on safeguarding coverage for preexisting conditions, encouraging Medicaid expansion in resistant states, and capping insulin costs. Biden also encouraged equity in healthcare provision, focusing on eliminating race and geographic gaps while upholding the ACA against court challenges.
Allocation of Resources
The American Rescue Plan directed $34 billion toward ACA subsidies, increasing affordability for over 14 million Americans (Ortaliza et al., 2024). Biden restored funding for navigators, expanded special enrollment periods, and invested in Medicaid outreach. His administration also funded technology upgrades for ACA marketplaces to streamline enrollment.
Trump Administration (2025-Present)
Approach
Trump’s agenda was to repeal and replace parts of the ACA, alleging it imposed economic burdens. He scrapped the individual mandate, promoted short-term limited-duration plans, and offered state flexibility with Medicaid waivers. Although opposed to the ACA, his administration was interested in lowering prescription drug costs, expanding telehealth throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and encouraging hospital price transparency to improve consumer-oriented healthcare.
Allocation of Resources
The government cut navigator programs and transferred funding to other coverage models, like short-term and association health plans. The Medicaid waivers gave states more freedom, with budget neutrality provisions capping federal spending. Transparency initiatives financed with federal funds made hospitals and insurers publish negotiated rates.
Part 2: Agenda Comparison Grid Analysis
Administration
The federal agency most responsible for addressing healthcare access under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), specifically through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stated that it is adopting important steps to promote accessibility to more affordable catastrophic health coverage through HHS’s new hardship exclusion guidelines (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2025). CMS is uniquely positioned to implement the ACA because it manages Medicaid expansion, oversees health insurance marketplaces, and administers federal subsidies. By working with state governments and private insurers, CMS ensures coverage for millions of Americans. This makes it the most effective agency to address healthcare access, as it balances federal oversight with state-level implementation and directly impacts affordability, availability, and quality of care.
How It Gets onto the President’s Agenda
Health access comes onto the presidential agenda through sustained citizen demand, political action, and medical crises that bring coverage gaps to the fore. For instance, Obama made access to the ACA a priority because of rising uninsured rates, and Biden reaffirmed its priority during the COVID-19 pandemic when millions stood to lose employer-based coverage. Once on a president’s agenda, it stays because of court decisions safeguarding the ACA, ongoing opinion polls that prioritize healthcare, and the economic implications of lacking coverage. Presidents prioritize healthcare access because it affects economic growth, social fairness, and national well-being.
A key champion for this cause is Senator Bernie Sanders. His years-long campaign for universal healthcare, Medicare-for-All initiatives, and support for ACA provisions entitle him to national leadership. Sanders efficiently enlists grassroots action and propels healthcare reform to the legislative forum, making him an influential sponsor. Nurses also act as champions by offering frontline perspectives on how coverage impacts patient care, proposing policy changes for enhanced affordability and access (Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Enhancing Environmental Health Content in Nursing Practice, 1995). Overall, policymakers and nurses ensure healthcare access remains a key legislative agenda.
Part 3 Fact Sheet
Why This Health Problem Matters
Access to affordable healthcare remains among the most pressing public health concerns in the United States. Despite improvements under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), over 27 million Americans remain uninsured, with disproportionate effects on low-income populations and racial/ethnic minorities. Gaps in coverage limit access to preventive services, worsen chronic disease outcomes, and increase emergency care costs that burden the healthcare system. Expanding affordable coverage reduces preventable deaths, promotes economic stability, and strengthens community health outcomes. Because healthcare inequities impact national productivity and public well-being, affordable healthcare should remain a central issue on the presidential and congressional agendas.
Why It Belongs on the Legislative Agenda
Affordability and access to healthcare are bipartisan issues that are regularly among Americans’ most pressing concerns. By reaffirming and fortifying ACA provisions—including expansion of Medicaid, premiums for subsidies, and stability in the marketplace—lawmakers can explicitly lower the uninsured rate and enhance healthcare outcomes. In addition, healthcare represents almost one-fifth of the American GDP, rendering reform a social necessity and, just as importantly, an economic necessity. Legislative action provides coverage and sustainability and eliminates systemic inequity over the long haul.
The Role of Nurses in Agenda Setting
Nurses are critical champions of healthcare policy because they are closest to patient experiences. Being the largest healthcare workforce category, nurses witness firsthand how uninsured coverage translates to denied treatment, non-adherence to medication, and avoidable hospital stays. Their knowledge bases anchor policy priorities to real-life patient outcomes to ensure that policy decisions mirror frontline realities (Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Enhancing Environmental Health Content in Nursing Practice, 1995). Beyond patient care at the bedside, nurses preside over professional associations, testify before Congress, and participate in grassroots advocacy to give a voice to marginalized groups. Nurses can bridge the gaps between policymakers and patient needs through clinical knowledge and professional credibility. Their ongoing involvement ensures that legislation is evidence-informed, patient-centered, and morally founded.
Conclusion
Expanding access to affordable healthcare has been a focus across presidential administrations, with initiatives that mirror political ideologies. The Obama presidency advocated expansion with the Affordable Care Act, Trump with deregulation and state freedom, and Biden with expansion by reinforcing provisions of the ACA and access to Medicaid. While different, all three presidents believed healthcare affordability is a significant population health problem. Further progress relies on presidential leadership and collaboration with agencies such as HHS and CMS to establish policy that addresses coverage gaps and cost increases. Perhaps equally important are entrepreneurs, advocates, and champions who bring attention to the problem throughout public and legislative conversations. Nurses are particularly engaged with policy advocacy by connecting patient needs with system reform. The placement of healthcare affordability front and center nationally is essential to further equity, reduce preventable disease burden, and harden the US healthcare system’s capacity to absorb shocks.
References
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Enhancing Environmental Health Content in Nursing Practice. (1995). Nursing Health & Environment: Strengthening the Relationship to Improve the Public’s Health. In A. M. Pope, M. A. Snyder, & L. H. Mood (Eds.), PubMed. National Academies Press (US). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25121198/
Neiman, P. U., Tsai, T. C., Bergmark, R. W., Ibrahim, A., Nathan, H., & Scott, J. W. (2021). The affordable care act at 10 years: Evaluating the evidence and navigating an uncertain future. Journal of Surgical Research, 263(1), 102–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2020.12.056
Ortaliza, J., Cord, A., McGough, M., Lo, J., & Cox, C. (2024, July 26). Inflation Reduction Act Health Insurance Subsidies: What is Their Impact and What Would Happen if They Expire? | KFF. KFF. https://www.kff.org/affordable-care-act/inflation-reduction-act-health-insurance-subsidies-what-is-their-impact-and-what-would-happen-if-they-expire/
Ortaliza, J., & Cox, C. (2024, May 28). The Affordable Care Act 101 | KFF. KFF. https://www.kff.org/affordable-care-act/health-policy-101-the-affordable-care-act/?entry=table-of-contents-what-is-the-affordable-care-act
US Department of Health and Human Services. (2025, September 4). HHS Expands Access to Affordable Health Insurance. HHS.gov. https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/hhs-expands-access-affordable-catastrophic-health-coverage.html
