Public administration - Essay Example

Public Administration What is Public Policy? Public policy is a law that enables efficient governance of an institution/country. According to Shafritz, Public Policy can simply be describes as an initiative a government takes to address public issues by instituting regulations, law and viable procedures that solve pertinent issue in the country (Shafritz, 2010). These issue can be, crime rate, education, foreign or bilateral relations, health and social welfare. Almost every country that has a democratic system of governance implements a new public policy every now and then.

The time line for implementing a policy can vary from weeks to several years depending on the size of the problem. The process of formulating a new public policy often follows three stages: agenda setting, option-formulation, and then finally implementation. This obviously revolves around the problem to be solved. A perfect example is the problem of health care in the US. The Affordable Care Act/ Obama Care is an example of public health policy that was recently implemented in the US. An Overview of Affordable Care Act Public PolicyPresident Obama signed into law The Patients Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in March 23rd 2010.

This policy aims to help more Americans gain access to health insurance at affordable rates. This is because millions of US citizens are uninsured. The ACA works in phases to reduce the number of uninsured by introducing an Individual Mandate. By 2014 every uninsured individual (Adults and Children) will be required to have some form of health insurance by paying up to $285/year to virtual health insurers online. Women will not pay higher premiums and insurers will have issue a cover regardless of enrollees having pre-existing medical conditions.

Under ACA, insurers are also requires to spend at least 80% of their premiums in actual health care. The ACA strives to push health insurance prices down and also maintain quality of care in the process. ReferenceShafritz, J. M. (2010). Defining public administration: Selections from the International encyclopedia of public policy and administration. Boulder: Westview.