Privatizing The Affordable Care Act - 1077 Words

Fifty years ago if the reception on the television went bad, first you knocked on the side, then peered in back for bad vacuum tubes and finally tinkered with loose connections. Today we unplug and restart. Tinkering with a health insurance system built on outdated assumptions is at the root of dissatisfaction with the Affordable Care Act. We don’t need reform, we need a restart. How we got here is worth examining. 1929: First offering of prepaid hospital insurance to members of a teachers union in Texas. Offering insurance for the employed effectively screened out unhealthy people and kept the risk low. Primary goal was to provide a steady flow of income to hospitals during the Great Depression, when hospital revenue dropped. 1942:†¦show more content†¦We are trying to deliver a rapidly expanding menu of health care services with a delivery system designed for economic conditions that disappeared nearly a century ago. In 1929, health care as a learned and licensed profession was barely a decade old and couldn’t provide much beyond supportive care. Chronic conditions were rare; insulin was first isolated in 1922 and diabetes was often a death sentence. Sulfa became available in 1935 and penicillin wasn’t mass produced until 1946. The most complicated piece of equipment in the hospital was the X-ray machine, and now we have real-time neuroimaging of brain function. Story Comments 106 November 6, 2015 in City Sue Lani Madsen: We don’t need to reform the Affordable Care Act, we need to start over Sue Lani Madsen Correspondent You ve read 5 premium articles Print Email Tags:Affordable Care Acthealth caresue lani madsen Fifty years ago if the reception on the television went bad, first you knocked on the side, then peered in back for bad vacuum tubes and finally tinkered with loose connections. Today we unplug and restart. Tinkering with a health insurance system built on outdated assumptions is at the root of dissatisfaction with the Affordable Care Act. We don’t need reform, we need a restart. How we got here is worth examining. 1929: First offering of prepaid hospital insurance to members of a teachers union in Texas. Offering insurance for the employed