Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006 and his doctor told him he had less than six months to live. He spent his last days advocating for pancreatic research. He had a chance to address the congress about the pancreatic cancer. He urged the congress to fund the research as the disease kills very fast. This has led to few living to talk about it as they die in under a year. Yet pancreatic cancer is a major cause of deaths among those aged forty to fifty nine in the United States.
It is deadly because the patients do not exhibit symptoms it gets to its advanced stage. This leads to little or no action being taken on a disease that is so fatal. He hoped to get the congress to invest $170 million dollars towards pancreatic cancer research. This is because the pancreatic research had the least finding from the federal government. It is allocated less than two percent of the National Cancer Institute’s budget (Hernrchs1). He appealed to congress to fund the research to encourage young researchers as Randy put it “the hotshot young researchers need the strong sense that the funding is there.
” (Randy’s Last Lecture). He urged the congress to fund the pancreatic research just like it had done in the HIV/AIDS and bioterrorism researches. Facts about health policy by congress The United States does not have a national health care that is comprehensive. Most families depend on their employers for health insurance. When they loss their jobs they are left uninsured. The congress is not doing enough to remedy the situation. This is because Obama’s proposed tax increases have not been embraced well and yet the law makers are not bringing ideas.
The Democrats are scared of dealing with issues of raising tax after they raised it and the Republicans took control of the congress. This means they are thinking about their political future at the expense of the interests of citizens (Ohlemacher 1). The congress through the legislators has tried to improve the national health system. For instance Kennedy J. while addressing the National Health IT Week on Capitol Press Conference in 2008 stressed the need to adopt of the health information legislation that is bipartisan.
He also brought the Personalized Health Information Act that would enable the use of web based health records for patients and doctors. He also advocated for more funds to prevent chronic illnesses. Comparison of President Obama with an earlier president on views and efforts on health policy. President Obama promised a health policy that would be affordable and of quality to all; he promised to modernize the U. S. Health Care System so as to lower costs and improve; promote prevention and strengthen Public Health.
Similarly Bush planned to modernize the Medicare program fro the elderly by adding drug coverage and he delivered this in 2003 when the ‘Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization act’ (Rovner). Health policy was a huge issue in Obama’s campaign when he ran for office On the other hand there is George W Bush health policy. It was not a major issue in his campaign for presidency when he ran for office in 2000 but he managed to do an effort to improve the health care system. Both presidents interested in a global health policy.
Bush pushed for health policy act that included funding Africa and the Caribbean to curb the AIDS/HIV virus when he asked the congress to approve about $10 billion. President Obama’s has a great interest on health policy. He says that the economy of the United States cannot be put under control unless there are comprehensive health care reforms. President Obama advocates for fixing the problem now even when the economy is dismal. He realizes that adding more people to the health plan without addressing the problems therein would be fiscal irresponsibility.
On the contrary it was not such for Bush because then the economy was strong and he took a keen interest in health policy especially after the September attack. This led to the health system needing more money for public health actiictivies after the anthrax attacks. More money was put into the bioterrorism research to train all stakeholders to address any potential attacks. The safety of the water and food had to be looked into to ensure the safety of the citizens of the United States.
Policy and politics are interrelated in a great way. Where there is a good political will policies are passed and implemented well. On the contrary a country that lacks political will finds it difficult pass or implement policies. This arises from the need of the people in power to do only what is best for them to survive politically. References Associated Press. Ohlemache R Stephen 2009. 3rd June 2009. http://www. etaiwannews. com/etn/news_content. php? id=952108&lang=eng_news&cate_img=1037. jpg&cate_rss=General
Microsoft research Randy Pausch’s Last Community Lecture. 3rd June 2009. <http://community. research. microsoft. com/blogs/alpineinker/archive/2008/04/07/randy-pausch-last-lecture. aspx> Rovner Julie Bush Administration Health Policy Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of New York academy of medicine. Vol. 81 (3):311 http://www. springerlink. com/content/62u21712841j7588/ TRIBUNE-REVIEW Heinrichs Allison M January 23, 2008. Retrieved on 3rd June 2009. <http://www. pittsburghlive. com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_548830. html>