Bill Clinton’s 1993 health care plan called for universal coverage. It was dead by 1994, but the political wrangling it started over health care lives on.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo
The US has been trying to reform its complicated health care system since 1993. In 2020, it continues to be one of the biggest and most complicated issues of the presidential campaign.
Open enrollment for health care in the ACA marketplaces ended at 3 a.m., Dec. 18, 2019, the same day a panel ruled that the individual mandate is unconstitutional.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services/AP Photo
Obamacare has been under siege since its passage in 2010. A ruling by a three-judge panel on Dec. 18 further chopped at the law by saying a key provision is unconstitutional.
Dr. Kyle Parks, the only surgeon at Evans Memorial Hospital in Claxton, Ga. The hospital struggles to stay in business while serving large numbers of rural poor.
Russ Bynum/AP Photo
Americans who live in rural parts of the country have fewer doctors, specialists and hospitals than those who live in cities. It also appears that insurers are working against them.
Amanda Gershon testifies at a public hearing on Medicaid expansion in Lincoln, Nebraska, Oct. 16, 2018. Gershon had $60,000 worth of medical debt at age 22 because of an autoimmune illness.
Nati Harnik/AP Photo
Nearly 160 million Americans get insurance through employers, but that does not mean it’s good social policy. An economist explains some aspects of employer-sponsored insurance that don’t work well.
Ten presidential candidates debate on July 30. Marianne Williamson, Tim Ryan, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Beto O'Rourke, John Hickenlooper, John Delaney, Steve Bullock.
Mark Peterson/Redux for CNN
Presidential candidates have been proposing plans to expand health coverage, lower prescription drug costs and make hospital bills more transparent. But few get to the real problem. Here’s why.
Protesters in London gather in support of the National Health Service.
Simon Dawson/Reuters
As candidates propose ways to provide health insurance for more people, it’s important to know that some proposals could have unexpected consequences, including potential closure of public hospitals.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson at a press conference in Little Rock, talking about new Medicaid work requirements in that state, Sept. 12, 2018.
Andrew DeMillo/AP Photo
In the wake of a judge’s ruling that Medicaid work requirements in two states are not legal, questions remain. The most pressing ones are about how to help low-income people, not punish them.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announces legislation at the Capitol on March 26 to lower health care costs and protect people with pre-existing conditions.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo
Obamacare, while highly controversial, has been a tough law to kill. The efforts of a federal district judge in Texas had seemed yet another ineffective assault. Then came the DOJ’s actions Monday.
Even when black men attain higher education and greater social status, their health is still not as good as white men’s health, a study this year found.
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If a person in the US has lots of money, he or she has access to some of the best health care in the world. The story is very different for poor people and minorities.
Austin, Texas contractor Mike Hewitt, who depends on insurance provided by the Affordable Care Act. A Texas judge ruled Dec. 14, 2018 that the law is unconstitutional.
Eric Gay/AP Photo
A judge in Texas ruled Dec. 14 that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. His ruling has no immediate effect, however, except to signal more perils ahead for the health care law.
Newborn babies in a Bangkok hospital on Dec. 28, 2017.They are wearing dog costumes to observe the New Year of the dog.
Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters
Universal Coverage Day came only three days shy of the deadline for open enrollment in the US. Why are much smaller, less wealthy countries such as Thailand pushing forward while the US is not?
Democracies survive if political norms and traditions are upheld. So the recent actions of GOP legislators in Wisconsin and other states to hamstring incoming Democrats put democracy at risk.
Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum speaks with health care professionals on Sept. 21, 2018 in Miami.
Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo
The campaign trail has been filled with talk about health care coverage, especially pre-existing conditions. While it may sound like both parties are on the same page, their ideas dramatically differ.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R.-S.C., left, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pictured Sept. 26, 2017 before the vote on Graham’s bill to gut Obamacare. Like others before it, the bill failed.
Andrew Harnik/AP
The Trump administration’s latest effort to undermine the Affordable Care Act is the expansion of short-term insurance plans. But these shorter plans are also short on real benefits.
Lukas Haeder, the author’s son, on his birthday.
Simon Haeder/Author
A routine childbirth proves expensive and complicated. Insurance company adjustments, inconsistent billing and mystery costs flummoxed even a health policy expert and his wife, a teacher.
Quintiles Professor of Pharmaceutical Development and Regulatory Innovation, Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, University of Southern California