Republicans, along with many on the Left, continue to question the benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed under President Obama. To address these questions, host Stephen Spitz is joined by Mark Moffett, PhD, a health care economist for the Inst. For Public Health and an Assistant Professor with the Dept. of Family & Community Medicine at UNM. We start with how the ACA will and will not affect health care services in New Mexico Among other subjects are: (a) the importance of universal coverage in a State where 27% of residents lack insurance coverage, (b) why the present “system” is truly broken, even for those with insurance, and (c) how reform will impact those who now have access only to the hospital emergency room. We then assess the accuracy of the three principal arguments against the ACA: (1) the ACA’s overall costs are not affordable and could bankrupt the US, (2) the ACA will cause per capita health care costs to increase at an even higher rate instead of restraining those increases, harming US competitiveness, and, (3) the Act will lower the quality of care and inevitably lead to rationing. So, if you are interested in health care reform, please join Stephen Spitz and Dr. Mark Moffett for a discussion about the economics of health care reform. Produced with assistance of John Burgund and Joe Green.
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