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Articles on Affordable Care Act (ACA)

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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

Universal coverage, single-payer, ‘Medicare for All’: What does it all mean for you?

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

How undoing ‘Obamacare’ would harm more than the health of Americans

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.
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

Americans bankrupted by health care costs: 4 questions answered

Just how big a problem are medical bankruptcies? For someone going through one, it’s devastating. And it happens far more often than you might think.
Several Democrats running for president in 2020 support some version of Medicare for all. AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

How the US could afford ‘Medicare for all’

There’s a very simple way to give Medicare to all: delete six words from the legislation that created the program in 1965.
Employer-sponsored insurance is one of the biggest benefits for U.S. workers, but it may not be best social policy. zimmytws/Shutterstock.com

Why your employer-sponsored insurance may ultimately not be good for you

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.
Health care has become a major talking point in the 2020 election. Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters

US health care: An industry too big to fail

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.
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

Medicaid work requirements: Is there a path forward that could help the poor, not harm them?

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

DOJ efforts to kill Obamacare, the cat with 9 lives, could cause health care havoc for millions

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.
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

Why the Texas ruling on Obamacare is on shaky legal ground

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

What the US could learn from Thailand about health care coverage

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?
Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum speaks with health care professionals on Sept. 21, 2018 in Miami. Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo

There’s more to health care access than pre-existing conditions

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

Short-term health plans: A junk solution to a real problem

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.

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