Articles of Interest

By Rosalind L. Murray | Palm Beach Post
So much has been said about the Affordable Care Act — both bad and good. Most people, unless you are a professional, will have a difficult time fully understanding your insurance policy. Consumers (and politicians) say that no one should come between them and their doctor. However, unless a consumer pays out of pocket — there has always been someone between them and their doctor: the insurance company.

Univision Chicago, April 12, 2014
They are a group of doctors and medical students that say they are not content with how health care reform is functioning, and are now calling for a reform of the reform.

By Adam Gaffney, M.D. | Dissent
Less than two years after the fall of Nazi Germany, a bankrupt Britain – reeling from the most destructive war in history and living under conditions of stark austerity – elected to create an extraordinary system of universal health care, the National Health Service (NHS). Aneurin Bevan, the Labour Party minister of health who played a crucial role in its creation, famously remarked that the NHS would “last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it.” Subsequent developments, it seems, have put his challenge to the test.

By Neil H. Buchanan | Justia (Mountain View, Calif.)
To the surprise of many people, and to the great consternation of Republicans, the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or the dreaded “Obamacare”) failed to fail. Last week, to much fanfare, the Obama Administration announced that the ACA’s enrollment target had been met, which means that the health care law will not collapse from lack of adequate participation.

By Sarah Kliff | Vox
Saskatchewan is a vast prairie province in the middle of Canada. It’s home to hockey great Gordie Howe and the world’s first curling museum. But Canadians know it for another reason: it’s the birthplace of the country’s single-payer health-care system.

By Margaret Flowers, M.D. | PopularResistance.org
I have been an outspoken advocate for a Medicare for all health system. During the health reform process, I did all that I could to push for single payer, including being arrested three times for civil disobedience. I was one of fifty doctors who filed a brief in the Supreme Court which expressed opposition to forcing people to buy private health insurance, a defective product. It pains me to see that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) siphons billions of public dollars to create more bureaucracy and transfers hundreds of billions of public dollars directly to the private insurance industry when I know that those dollars should be paying for the health care that so many in our country desperately need.

By Max Romano | The Baltimore Sun
After months of trying to help low-income Marylanders like Mary sign up, I'm more convinced than ever that Obamacare will not reach many of the people who need health insurance the most and that universal public coverage is the only way we can provide real health care for all in Maryland.

By Philip Caper, M.D. | Bangor Daily News
In today’s corporatized and increasingly monetized health care environment, the demands for generation of profit often directly conflict with our clinical judgment. The belief that doctors and other healers act as stewards for our patients’ welfare has long earned us a special place in society and the trust of our patients. That position and that trust, so critical to healing, is now threatened.

By Matthew Anderson, M.D. | Health Affairs blog
Sometime in the past five years — it’s hard for me to say exactly when — I suddenly found myself living in a new home. I must admit I am still a bit disoriented by how this happened. But it did. People keep telling me that everything will be OK but I am not entirely sure.