The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) is being touted by its proponents as moving the country to near-universal coverage and a great step ahead in U.S. health care. But what does this really mean? Are the many barriers to care almost a thing of the past?
On the plus side, the PPACA does offer these welcome provisions:
• Extending health insurance to 32 million more people by 2019.
• Allowing parents to keep their children on their policies until age 26.
• Expansion of Medicaid to cover 16 million more lower-income Americans.
• New funding for community health centers that could allow them to double their patient volume.
However, on the other side of the ledger, there are many problems that will render restricted access to care for tens of millions of Americans, an ongoing and even increasing problem. These examples show how far short of the mark the PPACA falls on access to care:
• There will still be 23 million people without any kind of health insurance in 2019.
• Federal support for Medicaid expansion will not kick in until 2014.
• More than 32 million other Americans will be under-insured in 2019, as a result of these kinds of circumstances:
- Many younger healthier people, the "Young Invincibles," will opt out of coverage until they have an accident or get sick.
Despite the hype we hear about "near-universal" access just down the road with PPACA, the above leads us to believe that access to care will remain inadequate for much of the population. In our next post, we will look at what this year's health care "reform" legislation means for the quality of care Americans receive.
Adapted from "Hijacked: The Road to Single Payer in the Aftermath of Stolen Health Care Reform," 2010, with permission of the publisher Common Courage Press. www.commoncouragepress.com