Public Policy and Its Impact on Healthcare in the US

Running head: PUBLIC POLICY AND ITS IMPACT 1
Public Policy and Its Impact
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PUBLIC POLICY AND ITS IMPACT 2
Introduce
Boudreau, (2017) state that the economic crisis in America has increased the gap between
the low-income earners and the high-income earners in America. Higher income earners can
afford the health care services including elective surgeries, and private rooms among others
while the low-income earners cannot afford the preventive care at a basic level. Department for
Professional Employees, (2016 ) observes that healthcare in the US remain distinct among other
developed nations internationally because it does not possess equal healthcare system, only
currently enacted policies mandating healthcare coverage for every person and does not possess
universal health care system coverage. Therefore, the government and policymakers must ensure
a universal and uniform health care coverage and system that bridges the existing gap between
the low income and high-income earners in the US.
Controversies in the healthcare policies
Some of the statistics that reflect the issues and challenges in the healthcare sector in the
US include the following. Department for Professional Employees, (2016) highlights that in
2014, 90% of the American population possessed some kind of health insurance with 66% of the
employees covered by private insurance. Among the insured population, 37% (115 million
individuals) of the citizens received healthcare coverage via Medicaid (62 million), and
Medicare (51 million) while Veterans administration (14 million) were covered by the
government plan. However, 33 million citizens did not have a health insurance. Boudreau,
(2017) claims that health care costs have increased from 2.5% points compared to the gross
domestic product in the US since the year 2017. More so, ½ of the health care spending is
utilized to treat 5% of the citizens in America.

PUBLIC POLICY AND ITS IMPACT 3
McCanne (2004) claims that states that in the year 2004, America used approximately
two trillion dollars in health which translated to 16% of the GDP. It amounted to 6,1790 dollars
per person which remain almost twice the amount other states with comprehensive system spend
on healthcare. Various policy analysts claim that the extent of spending remains adequate to
offer all US citizens with quality comprehensive health care but America has not yet attained the
goal. Additionally, Boudreau,(2017) argue that spending on prescription drug stands at 10% of
the entire health spending, but contributes to fourteen percent of the development in spending. In
1996, 26% of the poor used more than 10% of their income on health and the number grew to
23% in the year 2003. Glied & Jackson, (2017) claims that most policy professionals believe that
modern technologies and the growth of the existing technology account for most medical
spending and its development.
The Kaiser Family Foundation, (2017) states the ACA (Affordable Care Act) resulted in
historical benefits in the healthcare insurance coverage via expanding the Medicaid coverage to
numerous low-income earners and offering marketplace subsidiaries for those people below the
four hundred percent of poverty. Previously, Haught, Dobson, DaVanzo, and Abrams, (2017)
claim that there existed a gap in the unavailability of public coverage and the public insurance
system that oversaw millions of individuals without the healthcare insurance in America. As a
result, the Medicaid got expanded and the Health Insurance Marketplace got developed to
minimize the number of uninsured people. However, The Kaiser Family Foundation, (2017)
observes that 1 in every 10 children remains uninsured in America while 35% get insurance
through the Medicaid programs.
Factors for High Health Care Spending and inequality in America