Issues & Controversy with Public Policy Research Paper

Issues & Controversy with Public Policy - Research Paper Example In addition, the financial fines and penalties imposed by the US government in an attempt to persuade the uninsured people to change their status also pose serious challenges to low and middle income families. This paper will discuss the public policy issue of uninsured population in US and identify three policy initiatives that can address the issue. The term uninsured is commonly used to represent a person having no insurance coverage. According to Cropf (2008, p.323), the growing uninsured population in US was one of the primary concerns raised by the advocates of health care reform. A significant proportion of uninsured population in the United States has been a headache for the US policy makers for decades, and the introduction of the recent health care reform could not improve the situation notably. Multiple surveys indicate that the number of uninsured people has dropped due to the implementation of health changes resulting from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). According to a report published by the Commonwealth Fund in July 2014, an additional 9.5 million people aged 19-64 obtained access to health insurance, representing approximately 5 percent of the working-aged population. The United States Census Bureau reported that there were 48 million uninsured in the US (representing 15.4% of the populatio n) in 2012. Despite the falling rate of uninsured in US, one cannot say Obamacare (or PPACA) is a success in addressing the issue of uninsured in the country because of its higher costs. In spite of the claims of the Obamacare advocates that the new insurance coverage plans would cost less than the average cable bill or cell phone bill, a survey finds that roughly half the of the uninsured in the US say that Obamacare is too expensive. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation study released in January 2015 (as cited in Hall, 2015), 48% of the uninsured Americans are of the opinion that they remain uninsured due to the high