United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next Steps | JAMA | JAMA Network
The president got published in JAMA! This is a lovely, academic, chock-full-of line graphs sum up of the past 6 years of changes. Uninsured rates are way down, access and quality measures improving. The economy has responded positively. The health care world is topsy-turvy, and it is undeniably rough in the ranks of hospital management. But in spite of the challenges to the health care industry, the protections that the Affordable Care Act legislation provided make me as a believer in health care as a human right happy. And very frustrated with my home state and others that have declined to expand Medicaid.It's strange and sad that I celebrated the upholding of the ACA in the office of a Free Clinic where I volunteered, thinking it might be the end of clinics covering adults below the federal poverty level with a patchwork of volunteer services, state funds, and grants. I'm sorry that virtually nothing has changed for the patients we saw at that clinic. Hospitals in non-expansion states are still going uncompensated for millions of dollars of care. The federal government DSH (disproportionate share hospital) dollars that used to support public hospitals with large numbers of uninsured have declined as that money was plowed into ACA program support. One last insult: if you are paying federal taxes in a non-expansion state, your money is fed into Medicaid for adults in other states, while your health infrastructure is starving. But that is not the main focus of the article. This is a celebration. A statistically-backed victory lap. But don't take my word, listen to Barack Obama, JD:
The United States’ high uninsured rate had negative consequences for uninsured Americans, who experienced greater financial insecurity, barriers to care, and odds of poor health and preventable death; for the health care system, which was burdened with billions of dollars in uncompensated care; and for the US economy, which suffered, for example, because workers were concerned about joining the ranks of the uninsured if they sought additional education or started a business.
Source: United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next Steps | JAMA | JAMA Network