Health Policy: Opioid Medications Bill Number: NJ Assembly Bill A640

Student Name
Health Policy: Opioid Medications
Institutional Affiliation
Health Policy: Opioid Medications
Bill Number: New Jersey Assembly Bill A640
Title: Requires health care practitioners prescribing opioid medications on first-time basis, or to minor children, to limit amount of prescribed medication to seven-day supply, except in certain circumstances.
Policy description and its main goals
The policy has three main goals. Firstly, it seeks to restrict the prescription of opioid medication for adult-outpatient use by healthcare practitioners to less than seven days. Secondly, the policy endeavors to limit the prescription of the same medication to minors to not more than seven days. Lastly, the policy seeks to have healthcare practitioners explaining the patients the risks associated with the prescriptions. The healthcare practitioner should ensure that the patient or parent/and guardian understands why the prescription is nonetheless necessary.
Who are the sponsors?
The bill has three sponsors. The first one is Representative David Wolfe who is one of the primary sponsors. As a Republican Party member, Rep. Wolfe represents the 10th Legislative District and remains the longest-serving member of the Assembly where he has served since 1992. The other primary sponsor is the Republican Party politician Representative Gregory McGuckin. The Republican Party politician Representative Erik Peterson is a cosponsor. In the Assembly, Rep Peterson represents the 23rd Legislative District. Hence, the Bill falls under the spectrum of a partisan Bill since both the two sponsors and the cosponsor are members of the Republican Party.
The population for the policy
The Bill targets both patients and healthcare professionals New Jersey State. The patients include those who need an opioid prescription for the first time. The patients could either be adults or children.
Ethical issues in the Bill
The bill challenges relieving vain, which is one of the fundamental duties of healthcare professionals. Over the past few decades, the control of pain has mostly improved. Since the development of opioids, physicians have prescribed opioids, not only for acute pain but also for chronic pain. The widespread prescription of opioids has created a form of “public health crisis” (Elder, DePalma & Pines, 2018). Opioid therapy presents significant costs to patients. It increases the risk for addiction and possible drowsiness, nausea and other side effects. Some patients may need to manage pain for a long time that the seven days the Bill provides. When the Bill limits the prescription to only seven days, it disadvantages a majority of patients who would be better with a longer prescription.
Additionally, the Bill seems to imply that opioids work the same for all patients. Even if an opioid prescription was second, it will still work for some individuals. The legislators failed to appreciate that patients are unique and not data points. The risks of opioid therapy for more than seven days, as well as not offering pain relief, differ from one patient to another. The failure to mitigate pain can have adverse effects on patients, and can sometimes lead to suicide (Conejero, Olié, Courtet & Calati, 2018)...