The US is seemingly trapped in an endless upward spiral of healthcare costs.
The ACA was passed with claims that it would solve the problem of the uninsured and bend the cost curve downward. How’s it doing?
Halfway through the first official year of full implementation of the ACA, some people have gained coverage while significant number of others have lost coverage. The latest Gallup Poll estimates 13.4% are still without coverage. That’s an improvement from a peak of 18% uninsured in mid-2013, but the vast majority of newly covered have been enrolled into Medicaid – a highly flawed program where coverage all too frequently does not translate into actual medical care.
This mediocre success in resolving the problem of the uninsured is coupled with absolute failure in bringing down the cost of insurance and medical care. Much of the failure to bend the cost curve downward is due to a failure to understand what is and isn’t insurance. What’s being called healthcare insurance , isn’t insurance. Until we get this right, any attempt to lower healthcare costs will be negated by the laws of economics.