State Health Care Systems: Bracing For A Supreme Court Decision
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2012-06-11/state-health-care-systems-bracing-supreme-court-decision
When Congress passed the Affordable Care Act of 2010, it gave states until January 2014 to expand their health safety nets and get new insurance exchanges up and running. Now as the states await a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the act--also known as Obamacare--they confront political uncertainty and growing pressures on their health systems. We explore the different paths taken by Virginia and Maryland, and examine whether innovations at the state level will lower costs for consumers.
Guests
Joshua Sharfstein
Secretary of Health & Mental Hygiene, State of Maryland
William Hazel
Secretary of Health and Human Resources, Commonwealth of Virginia
Jack Meyer
Professor of the Practice, Maryland School of Public Policy and the School of Public Health, University of Maryland; Managing Principal, Health Management Associates
Rosemary Gibson
Co-author, "The Battle Over Health Care: What Obama's Reform Means for America's Future" (Rowman & Littlefield)
Edmund Haislmaier
Senior Research Fellow, Health Policy Studies, Heritage Foundation
Comments
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Hello. I am a Canadian living in the United States for a little over a year now. I've also lived in Switzerland. As a Canadian, I am perplexed and appalled by the lack of and complication of the "health" care system here in the US. I would like to put forward that it isn't necessary to reinvent the wheel. Other countries have a private/public health care system that works very well. Switzerland, for example, has a very good system that not only offers top quality care, but also ensures (and insures) the less economically fortunate in the country. Insurance companies also have an added product that consumers can buy which is "complimentary health care" which includes not only naturopathics, homeopathics, acupuncture, etc, but also all of the methods that help keep citizens health and prevent disease, such as yoga, meditation, tai chi, and the list goes on.
I have also noticed that medical tests done here in the US cost on average twice (and often times more) what they cost in Canada.