Obamacare and the way ahead
The United States’ health care system has long stood apart from those in other industrialised countries — and not in good ways. Despite the fact that the U.S. spends a far greater share of national income on health care than any other country, millions of Americans lack health insurance and access to effective care.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the UTS Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation (CHERE), Professor Thomas Buchmueller of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan delivered a lecture discussing Obamacare and how the new options created by the law are reshaping the health insurance landscape in the United States.
The lecture was the first in a new distinguished lecture series. Director of Strategy at CHERE Professor Jane Hall says, “The CHERE Distinguished Lecture series will bring eminent health economists to UTS to meet and share ideas and experience with the CHERE team. The Lecture itself will be open to the public and held every two years.”
Professor Buchmueller discussed how the coverage provisions of Obamacare were shaped by prior policy decisions: “The US spends far more than any other country on healthcare, and perhaps more troubling was the fact that the growth of health care spending far exceeded the growth of GDP – so it what seen as unsustainable," Prof Buchmueller said.
“The Affordable Care Act is a comprehensive package of reforms designed to address the major challenges that face the US health system.”
The legislation seeks to address the problems of cost and quality, but the most important—and the most controversial—provisions of Obamacare concern the expansion of health insurance coverage.
“When critics of the reform talk about the repeal of Obamacare, they’re not talking about repealing cuts to Medicare spending; they’re not talking about repealing delivery system reforms; they’re talking about repealing expansions of coverage that came through – new public insurance spending and new subsidies for private insurance.”
The impact of policies on insurance coverage has resulted in approximately 20 million Americans gaining health insurance coverage. But despite the strong coverage gains, nearly 30 million people remain uninsured.
The lecture concludes with a discussion of the challenges that the system continues to face, and the prospects for policy solutions in an era marked by great political discord.
You can listen to the full lecture here …
