Feb 6 2015
Confusion and controversy have plagued the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) since its enactment in March 2010. Republicans have generally opposed the legislation, and attempted to obstruct it in parts, or repeal it altogether. Democrats have tended to support it, defending it against the opposition, but wary of some of its problems. Patients and families are caught in the middle.
This is the first book to take an evidence-based approach to assessment of the good and bad about this signature domestic legislation of the Obama presidency after five years of experience. We find that the three major aims of the ACA—to provide near-universal access to health care, to contain costs and make health care affordable, and to improve the quality of U.S. health care—are not being met, and that the ACA's approach to health care reform will not work.
As it fails, the big question is what next? The case is made—on economic, social and moral grounds—that a single-payer improved Medicare for all system will best meet the ongoing goals of reform. This book explains how all Americans can gain universal access to comprehensive health care, paying less than we do now, with more value and less bureaucracy.
"John Geyman has provided us with the most lucid, best documented, and most compelling portrait of what's wrong with the Affordable Care Act yet available. He also argues forcefully for the fix we need. This is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of U.S. health care, and the essential playbook for policy change."
Healthcare workforce perspectives on patient experience improvement in private hospitals