The ACA or the AHCA: Imperfect Solutions to Increasing Access to Health Care?
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This week’s discussion focuses on the federal government’s role in protecting the public’s health using the ACA and current efforts to “repeal and replace” the ACA. Please note that the government’s role in protecting the public’s health did not begin with the ACA. In the late 1800s, Lilian Wald brought health care to the community. And in 1965, Congress passed bills authorizing Medicare and Medicaid. Since 1965, Congress has expanded government-sponsored health care to pregnant women and children.
Answer the following question:
· Compare the current provisions in the ACA with those in the failed first version of the AHCA. Share your opinions about why the AHCA failed in the first attempt at passage.
Continue to read daily from one of the policy briefs that are included in your weekly readings list. POLITICO Pulse is a daily briefing from POLITICO, and the Kaiser Health News Morning Briefing is a daily briefing from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Both focus on health care. Either one will keep you abreast of what is happening in health care policies and politics.
In addition, subscribe to the “HealthCetera” podcast and listen to the podcast weekly. This is a production of WBAI, free speech radio of Pacifica Foundation Radio in New York City. Diana Mason and Barbara Glickstein are founders and codirectors of the Center for Health Media Policy (CHMP). Both are recognized as experts in media, nursing, health, and health policy. They have a longstanding relationship as producers and moderators of HealthCetera (https://www.wbai.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=384&Itemid=42), a live, award-winning radio program on public radio and iTunes. They are bloggers for Disruptive Women in Health Care( http://www.disruptivewomen.net/)and for the American Journal of Nursing (AJN) (https://journals.lww.com/ajnonline/pages/default.aspx). The CHMP is an interdisciplinary initiative for advancing the health of the public and healthy public policies through media, research, education, and public forums. Listen to the podcast throughout the course and think on the topics that are discussed, especially as they relate to how we advocate for issues of importance in this contemporary political environment.
