03-16-2014, 03:54 AM
So let's talk about my new policy under Obamacare. For one, my premiums have declined by half. Before selecting my plan, I did my homework (a critical component for purchasing a good policy). I made sure that my doctors accepted the insurance and that my specific drugs, treatments and tests would be covered. So far, I've used my new plan many times and it's working.
That said, there are huge gaps that must be addressed, like high deductibles and maximum annual out-of-pocket costs. Many Americans aren't eligible to purchase off the health care exchanges at all. But instead of talking about how to strengthen Obamacare, most Republicans and some pundits find it far sexier to call for a complete repeal. Their near gloating over flaws and failures is disturbing. Let's be clear. Those of us on Obamacare are not lazy, unwilling to work, looking for a free handout, or sitting at home abusing our bodies. Like all Americans, we simply need health insurance. Because without it, we die needlessly.
Fix Obamacare, don't repeal it - chicagotribune.com
The linchpin of the program is the attempt to make sure that all Americans have health insurance, via the individual mandate. But Obamacare is a market mechanism, in that health insurers and health care providers remain private and compete against each other.
As has been pointed out countless times, this was originally a conservative approach, designed to work via the marketplace: The alternative is to have the government either (i) directly provide the health insurance (a “single payer” system, as in Canada; or under US Medicare for that matter) or (ii) directly provide the health care itself (”socialized medicine,” as in the UK; or the US Veterans Administration hospitals). The new approach was proposed in conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation. It was enacted in Massachusetts by Republican Governor Mitt Romney.
The administration announced last week that only 1.08 million people ages 18 to 34 had signed up for Obamacare by the end of February, or about 25 percent of total enrollees. If the proportion doesn’t improve significantly, the result likely will be fatal for the Affordable Care Act. The administration had said it needed 40 percent of registrants in the health insurance exchanges to be young adults, or about 2.7 million of the expected 7 million total.
Dana Milbank: Obama has a problem connecting to young on health care - The Washington Post
Early in his new book, “Reinventing American Health Care,” Ezekiel Emanuel pictures the late senator Arlen Specter (Pa.) holding up an incomprehensible chart of the U.S. health-care system — in 1993. What Emanuel calls the “interconnected weirdness” of our health-care system has only gotten weirder since.
Yet what he does is enormously helpful: He sorts it all out and gives us a clear and straightforward accounting of a system that is anything but. Emanuel starts at the beginning (1790, to be exact) and progresses logically to the present, through the development, political wrangling and legal journey of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Then he hurtles into cheerily optimistic projections about the future — perhaps more than a tad more optimistic than his own accounting of the past would warrant.
His review of how our health-care system got this way is a depressing reminder of forces that have little to do with health care and nothing to do with health.
Book review: ‘Reinventing American Health Care’ by Ezekiel Emanuel - The Washington Post