Reply To: US Healthcare policy

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#780366
charliehall
Participant

The major pro is that for the first time, all Americans will have guaranteed access to health insurance. Every other developed country in the world offers this. That insurance is mandatory for most will limit the cost-shifting in which those of us with insurance pay for the care of those without insurance through higher fees.

There are some cons. Unfortunately, many will choose to pay the penalty rather than buy insurance thus there will still be cost-shifting. Illegal immigrants also aren’t eligible so we will end up paying for their care through higher fees. Providing insurance through private companies is far less efficient than providing insurance through government plans because of the higher administrative overhead. Much money could have been saved by simply extending Medicare eligibility to everyone. There is a near-religious faith that private sector competition will reduce health care costs, but the actual evidence for that is scanty yet the Affordable Care Act assumes that there will be such cost savings. The Affordable Care Act provided for dramatic increases in funding for primary care clinics in order to head off a likely shortage of primary care physicians, but that increase in funding will probably be minimal because of Republican opposition.

There is a nice Wikipedia article describing the provisions in more detail. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act