Behavioral Health and Drug Pricing

Introduction

This week, we will address behavioral health care and the extent to which the primary care is trying to integrate behavioral health. Access to behavioral health care remains a major challenge across the U.S. Pharmaceutical policy is another area of concern, specifically the high cost of drugs, which is highly relevant to our efforts to control costs and make sure that Americans can afford the medications they need.

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Learning Objectives

By the end of this week, you will be able to:

• Describe the behavioral health needs of the U.S. population and how they are currently being met.
• Propose improvements in behavioral health policy and delivery systems.
• Summarize the major public policy issues related to pharmaceuticals.
• Recommend pharmaceutical policy changes to improve quality, cost, and access.
• Integrate course content with a policy event related to Week 6 topics.

Module 6 Discussion Board (

Value: 100 points

Note: In this type of discussion, you will not see the responses of your classmates until after you have posted your own response to the question below.

Initial Post

Select one topic below to write about in your initial post. Please make it clearly which topic you chose to write about in your initial post. Write 500 to 750 words related to:

• Pharmaceuticals: What two public policies have been recently proposed or adopted to support proper access to medications for all consumers, fair pricing, and reasonable regulation of new drugs coming to market? Who are the private and public stakeholders? Name some organizations advocating for policy changes.
• Behavioral Health: What two public policies have been recently proposed or adopted to improve access to behavioral health services and treatment? Who are the private and public stakeholders? Name some organizations pushing for policy changes.

Cite at least two sources with at least one of those from this week’s Learning Materials.

Replies

Reply to at least one of your classmates. In your reply, include new information related to your peer’s initial post or to the topic. Each reply should be 200 to 400 words. You should cite at least one to two sources in your reply posts that add new information in response to your classmate’s post, with at least one of those sources from Week 5 Learning Materials.

Please refer to the Grading Rubric for details on how this activity will be graded.

This is a question and answer forum. In order to see other responses to these questions, you must first post your answer