Newspapers frequently feature stories democratic principles processes contribute democratic governance impact a wide variety issues ranging distribution flu vaccines legal venue terrorist trials. Public policies formulated address issues result influence application democratic principles processes.
Public policy issue: Healthcare reform
The issue of healthcare
Healthcare is an extremely complex, bureaucratic public policy issue. However, it is also very emotional for many Americans given healthcare encompasses the 'hot button' issues of physical health and spending large amounts of money. The recent debate over the Affordable Care Act is only one of many national 'conversations' about healthcare that has resulted in partisan divisions even within families.
Democratic principle 1: Autonomy
Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the ACA is the individual mandate, which states that all Americans must have health insurance or pay a penalty unless this will cause them undue hardship. Many conservatives bridle at the fact that they are being 'compelled' by government to buy something they do not want. However, advocates of...
The
argument is that by bringing "young,
healthy people who aren't likely to get sick into the system," this will defray the costs of prohibiting insurance companies from discriminating against people based upon preexisting health conditions (Belvedere 2013). Advocates of the ACA argue that it is unfair for young, healthy people to gamble with their health, not pay into the system, and then incur substantial costs when they have an accident and rely upon emergency rooms for care.
Democratic principle 2: Elected officials represent the people
Many analysts have argued that a single payer healthcare system is more efficient than private health insurance reform. "In single-payer systems, the government pays for most non-elective medical care. Supporters say adopting that tax-financed model would improve care and dramatically reduce costs by eliminating overhead and insurance company profits" (Nelson 2013). This model is accepted in the
United Kingdom and Canada amongst many other nations and although there is some
criticism of these systems for providing inadequate care to certain groups or not approving certain procedures, the same argument could be made of private health insurance companies. Regardless, no American politician has ever been able to advance a single-payer system, despite the fact that forms of government insurance do exist such as Medicare through the
federal government and Medicaid through the states. The idea of government 'controlling' healthcare is…
