By Mark Satta* “It was a holocaust…All of my peers died of AIDS, and I have no one to celebrate my past or my journey, or to help me pass down stories to the next generation. We lost an entire generation of storytellers with HIV.” Those are the words of David Mixner, a civil rights activist and author, who lived through the horror of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and early … [Read more...] about Repealing the ACA Would be a Step Backwards in Treatment of HIV
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The Moral Foundations of the Insurance Mandate
By Tina Rulli* Republicans’ new plan to replace the Affordable Care Act ditches the health insurance mandate, the requirement for individuals to purchase health insurance or pay a penalty. Instead, their American Health Care Act favors tax credits to incentivize people to purchase insurance. There are many vantage points from which to assess the health insurance law, … [Read more...] about The Moral Foundations of the Insurance Mandate
The ACA is working – and there is no replacement
By Jonathan Gruber, MIT* One of the most contentious public policy issues of the early days of the Trump Administration is the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). President Trump and congressional Republicans decry the law as a failure and say that it must be repealed and replaced with something better. This line of argument is problematic in two different ways. First, … [Read more...] about The ACA is working – and there is no replacement
Unhealthy Citizens, Unhealthy Democracy
By Josh Carpenter* The United States has two distinct health systems for the poor: generally, one for blue states and one for red states. One system provides health insurance to the disadvantaged through Medicaid expansion. Over 30 states have elected to expand Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act or opted for a modified version. Democrats in statehouses across the … [Read more...] about Unhealthy Citizens, Unhealthy Democracy
The Unintended Uninsured: The Affordable Care Act’s Coverage Gap
By Julian Polaris* This is a golden age for access to healthcare in America. In 2015, over 90% of Americans had health coverage, the highest insurance rate in the 50 years the federal government has collected insurance data. This astonishing progress is due in large part to the Affordable Care Act (ACA): President Obama recently announced that 20 million people are covered … [Read more...] about The Unintended Uninsured: The Affordable Care Act’s Coverage Gap
By Tom Watts Part 2 in a series on National Federal of Independent Business v. Sebelius: Roberts and the four liberals upheld the individual mandate as valid under the Taxing Clause. The majority noted, “The exaction the Affordable Care Act imposes on those without health insurance looks like a tax in many respects.” It pointed out that the “penalty” (a) “does not apply to … [Read more...] about