NU706 Unit 7 Advocacy Testimony, Insulin Bill Example

Reviewed by Elspeth Marlowe, MSN, RN Ethics, Policy, and Advocacy in Population Health Purdue University Global Free custom sample in 24 to 48h

A $35 copayment for 30 days of insulin is the request in this NU706 Unit 7 advocacy testimony. A Dubuque nurse educator writes to the Iowa House Health and Human Services Committee in support of a composite bill modeled on Minnesota's Alec Smith Insulin Affordability Act, Minn. Stat. § 151.74, which offers an urgent-need supply once a year and a continuing-need route through manufacturers. Gaffney and colleagues' national survey, about one adult insulin user in six rationing in a year, gives the scale. A patient from the writer's unit who returned with a glucose of 486 gives the face, told with consent as a composite. Purdue Global NU 706 asks DNP students to address a real audience with one clear request. Choudhry and colleagues' survey of assistance programs answers one objection; the cost of a single readmission answers the other.

CourseNU706 Ethics, Policy, and Advocacy in Population Health
UnitUnit 7
Paper typeAdvocacy testimony
LengthAbout 700 words, 5 pages double-spaced
FormatAPA 7 student paper
SchoolPurdue University Global
ProgramDoctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
UpdatedOctober 2026

Free sample paper for NU706 Unit 7

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Thirty Days of Insulin for Thirty-Five Dollars: A Unit 7 Testimony Supporting an Iowa Insulin Safety Net Bill

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

NU706: Ethics, Policy, and Advocacy in Population Health

Unit 7 Advocacy Testimony

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The bill, its number, the committee hearing and the patient are composite; Minnesota's law and the studies cited are real.

What this part is doingNaming the audience, the bill and the request in the lead is what separates testimony from an essay about insulin prices.
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Testimony

Madam Chair, Ranking Member and committee members: I write as [name], a nurse who has spent [number] years at the bedside and now works as the unit educator for two medical-surgical units at a hospital in Dubuque, and I am a doctoral nursing student. I am writing in support of [House File number], which would create an insulin safety net for Iowans who have run out of insulin and cannot afford it. I ask the committee to pass the bill out of committee this session.

The problem. Insulin is not optional for people who need it. Yet a national survey of adults using insulin found that about one in six had rationed it in the past year, skipping doses, taking less than prescribed or delaying a purchase to save money, which the authors estimated at about 1.3 million Americans (Gaffney et al., 2022). People rationing insulin do not stay home quietly. They come back to hospitals like mine.

One patient. In March, a 41-year-old roofer left our unit on a Friday evening with a new insulin prescription that cost $312 for the month at the pharmacy counter. He had about $60. The manufacturer's assistance program could not be completed before Monday, and there was no other route. Nine days on, he was in our triage bay with a blood sugar of 486. His return cost far more than the insulin he could not buy. He agreed to let me tell his story without his name, because he wants the next person to have a choice he did not.

The bill would not have made insulin free for him; it would have made the first month possible.

What the bill does. [House File number] follows the design Minnesota adopted in 2020 (Minn. Stat. § 151.74). An Iowan with an urgent need, fewer than seven days of insulin and no affordable way to get more, could receive a 30-day supply at a pharmacy for a copayment of no more than $35, once in a twelve-month period. A continuing-need program would connect eligible residents to manufacturers' own programs for longer-term supply at a capped copayment. Manufacturers supply the insulin; the state's role is eligibility and oversight. The bill reaches the people current caps miss: the uninsured and people whose employer plans state law cannot regulate.

Answers to Likely Objections

"Manufacturers already have assistance programs." They do, and they help many people. But a survey of company-sponsored programs found wide variation in how they work, and half would not disclose their income limits (Choudhry et al., 2009). My patient's case shows the practical problem: an application that needs a signature, income documents and a prescriber form cannot be completed on a Friday night. The bill sets one public process with a fixed timeline.

"This will cost the state." The insulin itself is supplied by manufacturers, so the state's costs are mainly administration. The relevant comparison is the cost of emergency visits and admissions for people who ration. One return visit by one patient on my unit cost more than a year of the urgent-need copayments the bill would allow.

What this part is doingAnswering each objection with a specific fact, rather than a general appeal, is what makes testimony credible to a committee member who disagrees.
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Request

Please vote [House File number] out of committee. I would be glad to answer questions or to share how our unit would use the program at discharge. I am grateful for the committee's attention to a problem that reaches every county in the state.

Note to the Instructor

What this part is doingA short note on timing and sources shows the instructor that the writer knows how real testimony is judged and checked.
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The testimony runs about two minutes when read aloud, within the three minutes most committees allow. The patient story is a composite drawn from the course case, presented as a real committee would require, with consent stated. Minnesota's statute is cited from its primary text, and the bill's features above follow that statute; an actual Iowa bill would need to be checked against its own language before testimony was submitted.

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References

Choudhry, N. K., Lee, J. L., Agnew-Blais, J., Corcoran, C., & Shrank, W. H. (2009). Drug company-sponsored patient assistance programs: A viable safety net? Health Affairs, 28(3), 827-834. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.28.3.827

Gaffney, A., Himmelstein, D. U., & Woolhandler, S. (2022). Prevalence and correlates of patient rationing of insulin in the United States: A national survey. Annals of Internal Medicine, 175(11), 1623-1626. https://doi.org/10.7326/M22-2477

Minn. Stat. § 151.74 (2024).

Reading the NU 706 Unit 7 instructions

The advocacy unit asks students to write for an audience that has power over a decision, most often a legislative committee or a lawmaker. Prompts generally require a specific bill or policy, a clear statement of the writer's support or opposition, evidence, a story that shows the stakes and a response to objections. Length matters: committees allow a few minutes of spoken testimony or one to two written pages, so the piece must be brief. Instructors expect the writer to identify themselves and their standing to speak, and to end with the request repeated. A bill may be real or modeled on one elsewhere, but its features should match a real law. Two or three sources usually suffice. Some sections add a brief cover note in which the writer explains how the piece was shaped for its readers.

Inside the NU706 Unit 7 example

The testimony opens by addressing the chair and members, identifying the writer as a bedside nurse turned unit educator and doctoral student, and stating the request in the first paragraph. A problem section cites Gaffney's rationing figure. The patient story follows, the Friday discharge with $60 against a $312 price and the return nine days later, under a highlighted line that the bill would have made the first month possible. A section on what the bill does follows Minnesota's design and names the groups state caps miss. Two objections are answered in bold-headed paragraphs, one with Choudhry's findings on assistance programs and one with the cost of a return visit, and a margin note explains why specific answers persuade. The request is repeated, and a brief note to the instructor covers timing, consent and checking a real bill's text.

NU706 Unit 7 rubric: what earns full points

Advocacy rubrics in this course put the most weight on clarity of the request: the reader should know within a paragraph what the writer wants the committee to do. Audience fit is scored next, including tone, length and whether the writer states why they are qualified to speak. Evidence must be accurate and current, and the story should support the data rather than stand in for them. Answering objections is often a separate criterion, and graders look for responses that use facts. Policy accuracy matters, so the bill's described features should match the law it follows. What remains is awarded for organization, brevity and correct APA 7 citation of sources and statutes. Instructors frequently reward a testimony that could be read aloud in the time a committee actually gives.

NU706 Unit 7 help from the desk

Testimony is most often marked down for burying the request at the end or never stating it plainly. Long pieces lose points too, since a committee will not read five pages. Some writers rely entirely on a patient story and offer no data, while others recite statistics with no one in them. Inaccurate descriptions of the model law are a frequent and avoidable loss. Leaving out objections makes the piece look unaware of the debate. Patient stories also need consent or must be presented as composites. Before drafting, write the request as one sentence beginning "Please vote," then pick the single fact and single story that best support it. A custom testimony can be written for the bill in your own state and the committee that will hear it.

Get an NU706 Unit 7 example written to your instructions

Send the bill or policy, the audience and the testimony instructions with the rubric. A custom testimony states the request, supports it with evidence and a story and anticipates objections. Delivery is within 24-48h, and a first piece is free. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.

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NU706 Unit 7 questions, answered

How long should legislative testimony be?

Often two to three minutes spoken, or one to two pages written. Committees value brevity and a clear request.

Should testimony include a patient story?

Usually, with permission or as a composite. A story makes the evidence concrete, but it should support, not replace, data.

What makes testimony persuasive?

A clear request, credible evidence, a specific example and answers to the objections committee members are likely to raise.

Where can I find a free NU706 Unit 7 sample paper?

This page carries a complete NU706 Unit 7 advocacy testimony supporting an Iowa insulin safety net bill, with the request, national data, a composite patient story and answers to two objections.

What does the bill in the NU706 Unit 7 sample do?

Modeled on Minnesota's insulin safety net law, it lets a resident with less than a week of insulin get a 30-day supply for no more than $35 once a year, and links eligible residents to manufacturers' programs for longer supply.