Obama recently penned an assessment of the Affordable Care Act in JAMA; I wrote a response in Jacobin.
Tag Archives: Underinsurance
Discussing Media Coverage of Obamacare with Steve Randell on Counterspin
This week I discussed the media coverage of Obamacare – and why Obamacare falls short of true universal health care – with Steve Randall from the media watch group FAIR on its radio show CounterSpin. Available here (at 10:15) and on 140 stations nationwide.
Discussing Underinsurance on “The Attitude” with Arnie Arnesen
I joined progressive talk host Arnie Arnesan on her radio program “The Attitude” at WNHN 94.7 this afternoon to discuss Obamacare and why underinsurance is unfortunately set to continue … Available here (starting at 9:40).
Salon: A pro- single payer doctor’s concerns about Obamacare
As a single-payer advocate who is also a doctor, I was concerned after the Affordable Care Act was passed that it didn’t do enough to combat rising underinsurance. A recent study by the Commonwealth Fund, which used new data to demonstrate that in 2012 some 31.7 million Americans were underinsured (i.e. insured, but still with heavy additional out-of-pocket health care expenses), argued that the burden of underinsurance will likely lessen as the ACA fully unfolds. But is there really reason for such optimism? See the article here in Salon.
Blog: Underinsured in the Commonwealth?
There has been much talk in recent weeks about the ability of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) not only to reduce uninsurance, but also underinsurance, which is the state of being inadequately insured, such that medical expenses remain a threat to one’s financial health.
The health care reform that Massachusetts launched in 2006 to no small degree provided the model on which the ACA is based. Therefore, the current state of affairs in the Commonwealth provides a good basis for predicting the impact of the ACA. Such an evaluation, unfortunately, gives grounds for pessimism on the issue of underinsurance.
Truthout: Of Patients and Prices
There are many good reasons to impatiently anticipate the end of one’s medical training, which not infrequently lasts upwards of five years following medical school. But counterpoised to the oft-cited benefits – greater autonomy, reliably increased remuneration, less reliably improved hours, and so forth – there is also, unfortunately, an almost entirely unrecognized drawback: a largely unavoidable entanglement in the business of health care … Read the article at Truthout here.
Salon: Republicans’ biggest misunderstanding about Obamacare
The battle for universal healthcare is not over. This is not because of the reason you might suspect – that Republicans will obstinately endeavor to obstruct Obamacare in every way they can (though that seems to be the case). Instead, even after the smoke clears from the government shutdown (presumably with the law intact), the battle over universal healthcare will still not be over, but for a more fundamental reason: Obamacare, whatever its advantages (and despite the right’s worst fears), does not create a system of universal healthcare…
Read it on Salon here.
In These Times: Underinsured in the Age of Obamacare
During the second presidential debate of 2008, Tom Brokaw asked Barack Obama and John McCain: “Is healthcare in America a privilege, a right or a responsibility?” Obama, unlike McCain, did not hesitate to respond plainly that healthcare “should be a right for every American.” He proceeded to make healthcare reform a major goal of his presidency…
Read this article in the July 2013 issue of In These Times.
Adam Gaffney 