Should We Repeal the Affordable Care Act?
Yes, please, do ASAP. Now that I got your attention stick around long enough to read this: my reasons for disliking it will upset extremists on both sides of the political aisle.
ACA has indeed provided relief for many. Some it its features should be retained, such as allowing pre-existing conditions, enrolling young people in parents’ plans, etc. But, the fundamental flaw in ACA is that it is forcing people to participate AND it only covers 10% of the factors that impact people’s health. This is why it is inefficient and too expensive.
I say repeal it in favor of a Single Payer System that allows people to opt out without penalties. Get rid of insurance companies and curve Big Pharma’s excessive profits and shenanigans. They have been the main winners in ACA, not the people. Let’s use the money saved to teach people to be healthy and prevent disease!
References
US health care system remains among least efficient in the world, Bloomberg News (9/29/2016Du)
“The US health care system “remains among the least efficient in the world.” The United States “was 50th out of 55 countries in 2014, according to a Bloomberg index that assesses life expectancy, health care spending per capita and relative spending as a share of gross domestic product.” The US system “tends to be more fragmented, less organized and coordinated, and that’s likely to lead to inefficiency,” said Paul Ginsburg, a professor at the University of Southern California and director of the Center for Health Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Ginsburg opined that the Affordable Care Act may boost spending “because we know that insured people use more services than uninsured people.”
Bridging the divide between health and health care, JAMA 2013;309:1121
“Health Care delivery accounts for only 10% of preventable deaths, with the remainder attributable to personal behaviors, social and environmental determinants, and genetic predispositions. As currently constituted the Health care delivery system has little direct control over these other factors. However, consensus is developing that truly controlling health care costs and improving the overall health of Americans will require a much closer partnership, permeable boundaries, and increased interdependence among the health care delivery system, the public sector, and the community development and social service sectors… To create a culture of health will require creating a market for health, moving away from the current market for treating disease.”
