Public Administration Seminar

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The response addresses the queries posted in 1849 words with references.

//Before writing about the differences between the expenditures, expenses and encumbrances, it is essential to have the knowledge about the government agency. One should know about the main aims and policies provided by the organization called State Children's Health Insurance Program in an effective manner//

I have chosen the 'State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)'. The main target of this insurance program policy is to cater the health insurance service to more than 400 children. This insurance scheme is financed by the federal and the state governments. The aim of 'State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)' is to provide major benefits of insurance to the children which are discussed below:

? To provide preventive health care system;

? To reduce the admissions in hospitals;

? To give better results to those children who avail this scheme than to those who are uninsured (Broaddus & Park2007).

This Insurance Policy provides support to the health services. It offers various insurance services to the children so as to enhance the health care facilities in America. These policies conduct and support health researches for the development of health facilities. They undertake a wide research that tries to improve all the areas of health care for the children who avail this insurance policy. The policy of SCHIP has a tremendous impact on delivering the health care insurance policies to the children of the U.S. by determining the scope and the quality of healthcare insurance services. The influence of these services is also shaped by the nature of medical care provided to the children.

In the present scenario, there are various challenges for the insurance policies related to the health care. The number of challenges faced by the insurance policies is described below:

? The health care policies try to improve both the quality as well as the safety of the health care services.

? The policies lay emphasis on providing better health care services to all the children belonging to working parents of the low income group.

? These policies try to improve the value of health care among all the health care institutions.

? The policies try to maintain equality in providing health facilities to all the insured children without any kind of biases.

? The policies lay more emphasis on the application of modern health care technologies in the development of health services.

//Above is the discussion of the government agency and its main aims and policies. Now, as per the directions, explanation about the difference between expenditures, expenses, and encumbrances is to be discussed//

A.

Difference between Expenditures, Expenses and Encumbrances

Expenditure may be defined as the money spent or the liability incurred for the purpose of some benefits, services, property etc. Some of the examples of expenditures include the purchase of fixed assets, grants or subsidies, debt services, etc.

Expenditures may be classified into two heads:

 Capital Expenditures: The expenditures which are incurred for acquiring fixed assets like building, machinery, land, etc. are referred to as capital expenditure.

 Revenue Expenditures: The expenditures which are incurred in the current year and the benefits of which are also taken into consideration in the same accounting period are known as Revenue Expenditures.

Expenses are defined as the costs incurred by the business in the process of earning revenue. It other words, it refers to the amount spent in order to provide various services to the general public which lead to revenue-generation. But expenses decrease the capital (Wilson & Kattelus, 2000).

Encumbrance is defined as a claim against the calculated funds. Basically, it is a contract between the two parties to make future payments for the services. In simple terms, it is the amount set aside for future spending. For example: contracts, purchase orders, etc. In other words, it is the commitment to spend adequate funds for the purchasing of goods or services (Wilson & Kattelus, 2000).

//Above is the explanation of the differences between expenditures, expenses, and encumbrances, now moving to the next directions, a discussion about the government's capital project, general, and proprietary funds is provided//

B.

Under the President's budget, it is projected that the states would witness a total federal funding deficit of $7 billion in the next 5 years. If SCHIP is reauthorized however, funding stays frozen at the present funding level of $5.04 billion every year, there will not be enough federal funding for the states to maintain their programs. As per CBPP estimates based on the latest SCHIP data, the entire federal funding shortfall will be equal to $13.4 billion over the coming 5 years under the baseline funding levels. The health insurance policy of the USA tries to make efforts for improving the quality, safety, results and utilization of health care services and provide better and preventive care to the insured children of low income group families. This amount will help the State children health insurance program to provide special health care services and better preventive care to all the children in the coming years.

The President's budget recommends the reauthorization of the SCHIP program and offering of some extra funding. It would include the following:

1. Reauthorization of the SCHIP program for a period of five years at the baseline levels of $5.04 billion every year.

2. Providing an extra $4.8 billion to the states above the baseline funding levels starting from the fiscal year 2009. The President's budget would most likely allocate these funds to states that face shortfalls of federal funding.

3. Speeding up the redeployment of the unspent SCHIP funds from the previous years. Under the present law, the Secretary recaptures and redistributes any SCHIP funds that have been allocated to states that remain unspent after three years; then there is a reallocation of funds to states that need them.

4. Reduce the federal matching rate for certain SCHIP beneficiaries. Under the current law, the federal government pays on average 70 percent of the cost of covering SCHIP beneficiaries.

//After discussing about the government's capital project, general, and proprietary funds;, explanation about the budget analysis is to be discussed as per the instructions//

C.

1. Main revenue sources: The state government gets a major portion of the funds through revenues. The sources of revenue are cigarette tax, alcohol tax, gas tax, air transport tax, corporate income tax, payroll tax, individual income, etc. In the government funds, revenues cause an increase in the asset and fund equity. The major sources of revenues in this project include grants or aids from the state and federal government, appropriations of the government for the special purpose of health care programs, donations, etc (Fiscal Facts, 2007).

2. Budgetary levels: The items of the budgetary level are itemized at both levels i.e. department level and program level. Through the projected budget of financial year 2008, I concluded that the major factors responsible for deterioration in the financial year 2009 are large amount of tax cut and budget increases. This condition depicts that the overall position of the health insurance policy is not at all effective. With the help of the cash flows and appropriations for the developments, one can easily evaluate the current situation. The net position of the company was also showing a decreasing trend as compared to the last few years.

3. The continuous improvements are the results of investment plans of both short as well as long ranges. Long term spending plan are the plans in which a large portion of capital will be invested. The plan which is made for the investment estimation of a small project that is expected to be completed in a short duration of time is known as a short term plan.

Long term spending plan of the State children's' Health Insurance Policy:

? Long term spending plans for supplemental nutrition assistance program.

? It also spending a large share of revenue for the support of poor working families.

? State children health insurance program is spending a share of its revenue on developing and improving the Medicare saving programs.

Short term spending plan of the State Children's Health Insurance Policy:

State Children Health Insurance Program has the following short term spending plans for the financial year 2008-09-

? Tax cuts: Budget policy of SCHIP is facing tax cuts from the ...