truthdig : reported that Why the Affordable Care Act Hasn’t Gone Far Enough (Audio)

Barack Obama signing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at the White House in March 2010. Song argues that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, does not go far enough in insuring Americans and keeping health-care costs down. He adds that it's "encouraging" that many senators now support Medicare-for-all legislation"The insurance industry hires so many people with the explicit mandate to deny people care," Song tells Scheer. (Wikimedia Commons)In this week's episode of "Scheer Intelligence," Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer interviews Dr. Paul Song, a radiation oncologist and an outspoken critic of the current U.S. health-care system. "It did do a tremendous amount of good, but we need to take one step back to realize that there were 3,300 registered health care lobbyists for the 535 members of Congress, and more was spent in the run-up to the Affordable Care Act than what was spent on the Bush-Kerry election," Song explains.

Is the Affordable Care Act really imploding?

Cost is measured by the rate of increase in health care spending and the proportion of our national wealth devoted to health care services. I submit these measurements help us understand the myth of American exceptionalism, particularly in health care. From 2008-13 health care spending increases in the U.S. were 2 percent to 3 percent. Most people judge the cost of health care by the cost of their insurance premiums. A five-year assessment of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) was presented in the New England Journal of Medicine by Dave Blumenthal et al.

Cost of repealing Affordable Care Act

Health care (Photo: Getty Images)Repealing the Affordable Care Act will result in enormous financial losses to individuals, businesses and units of government in Indiana. Across the country 29.8 million people would lose their health insurance, more than doubling the number of people without health insurance, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Subsidies for individuals and Medicaid coverage have helped millions in the US afford health care. Losing health insurance would be horrendous for families and the local economy. In Indiana, 566,000 people would lose their health insurance — that is, the number of people without insurance would jump by 103 percent.


collected by :Lucy William

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