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

An Analysis on the Juvenile Justice System Dissertation

An Analysis on the Juvenile Justice System - Dissertation Example Young, O'Donnell and Clare (2001) in their report to the National Crime Council for the period 1950 - 1998 stated that, first and foremost, it had been difficult finding conclusive data for the majority of the period covered reflecting the lack of coordination on maintaining data on juvenile justice for the majority of the period of time covered in the report. Additionally, during the time period analyzed the age groupings fluctuated which made data gathering even more difficult. Several of the periods had overlapping age groups represented in several categories and during a 20 year period data was categorized for the age group 17 to 21 which did not reflect if the crimes were even committed by juveniles per se. Upon completion of the report, however, and with the limitations set forth previously addressed Young, O'Donnell and Clare (2001) presented their findings noting several general trends. Since 1958 the trend of juvenile offenses has been very erratic with marked differences fr om year to year in some cases. Figure 1 below shows the number of juvenile cases by year for the 40 year period. As seen from the above graph the highest recorded period of juvenile crime was in 1961 when 3,333 cases were reported. 1976 saw a dramatic drop in juvenile crime which may actually be a reflection of the change of reporting practices as opposed to an actual drop. As seen in the above chart since 1990 with the exception of 1996 juvenile crime has been decreasing at a steady rate. 1997 showed the all time low of only 465 cases while the following year the number juvenile offences increased slightly to 573. During the entire period of the study Young, O'Donnell and Clare (2001) reported that juveniles accounted for 23% of all reported crime in Ireland. The rate has not increased above 30% since 1961 and since the early 1990's has been 15% or less which reflects in the total number of youth being arrested for criminal offences. By 1997 only 9% of all crimes were committed by juveniles. This rose