Understanding the Impact of the Affordable Care Act
This video does a great job explaining the scope and impact of the Affordable Care Act. It recognizes that millions of people will continue uninsured, but unfortunately, it fails to highlight the critical problem of underinsurance. Insurance is not a guarantee of affordable access to care because deductibles and copays are often barriers to care.
So the picture below from the video, should look like this:
So what do we do? We need our public hospital district and our health department to recognize that they are the last line of defense to make sure people in our community get the care they need. We need to monitor access, explore options for expanding it through local programs, and relentlessly advocate for single payer/universal healthcare at the state and national level. The ACA allows states to implement a single payer system in 2017, we should work with Rep. Sherry Appleton to make that happen. Single payer is the only way to affordably ensure all people comprehensive access to healthcare.