TRUTH SEEKING: The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Law
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last year took the first steps to implement an Affordable Care Act (ACA) that cuts red tape in the health care system and is estimated to save $12 billion over ten years.
Some politicians, even Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney who sponsored universal health care insurance as governor of Massachusetts, vigorously oppose a new federal law to provide coverage for all.
A right-wing doctors advocacy group likens the Affordable Care Act to "Hitler."
The reasons for this opposition appear to be more political than practical and reasonable, and news media reports do not fully explore the reasons for opposition to the act.
This columnist is among observers baffled why this law has been called "unaffordable, unconstitutional, job-killing," etc., etc.
The Congressional Budget Office says health reform will not significantly change the number of jobs or the unemployment rate. A nonpartisan economic assessment by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) finds nothing that justifies the inflammatory "job-killing" rhetoric invoked in House Republicans' efforts to repeal the legislation.
The CBO also notes that the Republicans' plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act will cause the federal deficit to increase by a substantial amount.
The CBO is projecting that repeal of ACA would increase the federal deficit by around $230 billion in the next decade and by an even larger amount after that.
CBO also says repealing the Affordable Care Act would mean higher deficits plus insurance that is less comprehensive, less available, and in many cases more expensive.
NOTE: U.S. Rep. Dan Benishek, R-Michigan, a physician from the Upper Peninsula, who represents northern Michigan and part of Bay County, co-sponsored a bill called "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act."
Labeling the ACA with the pejorative "Obamacare" appears to be mainly a political thrust aimed at derailing the president's re-election in 2012.
Why would candidates Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, Jon Huntsman, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, et al, say their first action in office, should they be elected, would be to kill this legislation?
Obviously, the tawdry politics of playing to a radical minority are paramount in this type of campaign rhetoric. It's hard to believe even the Tea Party, so dedicated to debt reduction, doesn't believe CBO projections.
State governments, including Michigan, have launched legal challenges to the act in federal courts.
MyBayCity.com has surveyed the opinions of medical professional groups in order to give readers better perspective on this vital issue.
Savings come from improved use of electronic standards that will help eliminate inefficient manual processes and reduce costs, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
"This will not only save health care providers and health insurance companies money, but also allow physician offices to redirect time now spent on administrative tasks to patient care," says Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of HHS.
"Consumers will also benefit with more complete information about their out-of-pocket costs and deductibles."
The Affordable Care Act* (ACA) is a comprehensive health system reform law that will increase health insurance coverage substantially for the uninsured and implement long overdue reforms to the health insurance market.
The American Medical Association (AMA) has this to say:
"The new law includes many major provisions that are consistent with AMA policy and hold the potential for a stronger, better performing health care system. While the new law represents a tremendous step forward on the path toward meaningful health system reform, it is not the last step, but rather the beginning.
"A number of key provisions in the law . . . will not become effective until a number of years in the future, allowing the AMA and state and specialty societies to have maximum input into the regulatory process and to seek further legislative changes. The following is a summary of some of the major provisions in the ACA that are generally consistent with AMA policy, and provisions we believe need additional refining.
Major provisions the AMA generally supports are:
Increasing health insurance coverage to 32 million more Americans
Making health insurance more affordable for families and small businesses through the creation of state health insurance exchanges and the provision of sliding-scale premium tax credits and cost-sharing subsidies
Health insurance market reforms to address abuses of the health insurance industry
Preventing denials of care and coverage, including those for pre-existing conditions
Stronger patient protections
Administrative simplification, to eliminate billions of dollars of unnecessary costs and administrative burdens
Medicare bonus payments for primary care physicians and general surgeons
Increasing Medicaid payments for primary care physicians
Increasing geographic adjustments for Medicare physician payments
Expanding and improving coverage of preventive services in the public and private sectors
Funding state demonstration grants to study alternative medical liability reforms
Providing more flexibility in the Graduate Medical Education program
Requiring individuals to have minimum health insurance coverage or pay a penalty
Improving Medicare prescription drug benefits by reducing the coverage gap (i.e., "doughnut hole")
Comparative effectiveness research
The American Nurses Association's stand on the law:
"The American Nurses Association (ANA) is steadfast in its support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and is once again calling on nurses to get involved in the efforts to secure health care's future. ANA President Karen A. Daley, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN, is speaking to nurses across the country about the attempts to turn back the Affordable Care Act, and urging nurses to "fight to protect the hard-won, health care reform law that is vital to the future of this country."
Opposed to ACA are:
HEALTH ORGANIZATIONS: Association of American Physicians and Surgeons; Physician Hospitals of America
The American Center for Law and Justice, 49 Members of the House of Representatives, and the Constitutional Committee to Challenge the President and Congress on Health Care;
Washington Legal Foundation and 14 Legal Scholars;
Pacific Legal Foundation, Matthew Sissel, and Americans for Free Choice in Medicine;
Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Professor Randy E. Barnett
Kurt Rohlfs;
Justice and Freedom Fund;
Mountain States Legal Foundation;
Landmark Legal Foundation;
Family Research Council;
Delegate Bob Marshall (R-VA) and 11 conservative advocacy groups
-Three Former GOP Attorneys General;
American Civil Rights Union;
Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence.
Among groups lined up in support of the ACA are: American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Inc., American Diabetes Association, Inc., American Heart Association, Inc. and The American Cancer Society, Inc.;
DOCTORS AND NURSES GROUPS: Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Student Association, American Nurses Association, Doctors for America, National Hispanic Medical Association, National Physicians Alliance;
HEALTH GROUPS: American Association of People with Disabilities, The Arc of the United States, Breast Cancer Action, Families USA, Friends of Cancer Research, March of Dimes Foundation, Mental Health America, National Breast Cancer Coalition, National Organization For Rare Disorders, National Partnership for Women and Families, National Senior Citizens Law Center, National Women's Health Network, National Women's Law Center, and The Ovarian Cancer National Alliance.
OTHER: 38 economists including three Nobel Prize winners.
Thinking Americans should carefully weigh the motives of the groups and politicians who oppose ACA as the fates of millions of fellow citizens depend on a just decision. This is life and death for many, including us all, so politics must be put aside.
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