Mini Medical School March 2012

Our first Mini-Medical School of 2012 produced a lively discussion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This is the legislation passed early in President Obama’s first term. The law is massive, more than 2,000 pages, and addresses just what the title promises-patient protections and the creation of an affordable health care system. Here are the resources from that Mini-Medical School. You will find several websites that have organized the information in an accessible way. The cornerstone of a democracy is an informed citizenship!

Since the Supreme Court ruled the Affordable Care Act constitutional in June 2012 and will allow it to go forward, there has been quite a fuss from certain quarters. President Obama has applauded to decision and said that it is time for us to let the ACA do it’s work and move forward with other pressing agendas. The congressional opposition does not feel this way and wishes to keep dissent alive. I have listened to their arguments and I do not think they are well informed. I would encourage you to educate yourself about the act using the resources in this handout. I have chosen them to be maximally useful and minimally confusing. I have noticed that much of the rhetoric from the right is identical to the messages sponsored by special interest groups during the Clinton years. You would think they could come up with some new material. This is especially true of ” you will not be able to chose your own doctor”. You can investigate the source of this one by reading Deadly Spin by Wendell Potter. This is an outstanding bit of reporting that exposes the marketing strategies of a major insurance company.

The ACA-where to find out the details. There are several excellent websites that detail the provisions of the ACA.

The Henry Kaiser Family Foundation: www.healthreform.kff.org

The Commonwealth Fund: www.commonwealthfund.org/health-reform.aspx

Health and Human Services: www.healthcare.gov

AARP: www.aarp.org/healthreformguide

AARP: www.aarp.org/guiadelaleydesalud (in Spanish)

Catholic Health Association of the United States:

“A passionate voice for compassionate care”

www.youtube.com/HealthReformWorks and www.healthcareandyou.org

Pre-existing conditions Insurance Plan (California): www.pcip.ca.gov

Health Care Reform, the comic book: Health Care Reform by Jonathan Gruber

Here is the handout of the talk:

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)

(It’s not “ObamaCare”)

Mini-Medical School March 17, 2012

Why do we need this legislation?

Rising costs of healthcare
Increasing number of uninsured

In 1950, healthcare was 5% of production, now it is 17%. Money spent on healthcare is money not spent on other items, like wages.

Even with our private system, government pays for about half of all healthcare.

The uninsured, who are they? In 2010, 4.5 million people lost employer sponsored coverage. Some were too sick to work. Almost fifty percent of bankruptcies are due to medical expenses and of that group half those people had health insurance. When a patient cannot pay for healthcare, the cost is shifted to the hospital, to insured patients and then to the insurance company, who shift it back to the insured patients. We all pay.