Filmmaker Michael Moore's new documentary sets out to investigate the American healthcare system
In 2010, Congress enacted the Patient Protection and Affordable CareAct in order to increase the number of Americans covered by health insurance and decrease the cost of health care.
Read the Supreme Court’s Decision
on the Affordable Care Act
(PDF – 779 KB)
Health Care Reform
The healthcare system in the US is in turmoil. Health care costs are increasing while access to health care is in decline. The health insurance system is greatly stressed; some say “crumbling”. Public programs, notably Medicare and Medicaid, strain the taxing capacities of government. And, as a share of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), health care expenditures have increased from 12.4% in 1980 to 16% today and are projected to grow to 20% by 2016. No other country spends as much on health care as does the U.S. yet Americans tolerate a system that leaves one sixth of its citizens with poor access to basic medical care. Since voluntary private insurance cannot cover everyone, Americans who cannot afford to pay for health care and do not have health insurance are effectively denied access to non-emergency care. The percentage of survey respondents “rating the system as poor has doubled,” from 15% in 1998 to 31% in 2006.
All other developed nations of the world, including developed countries in Western Europe, Asia, North and South America, and on the Pacific Rim, provide health care for all or most of their residents. Reforming health care will not be easy, but it’s not impossible. Other countries have done it, and they have lower costs and better overall system performance than the United States. Successful national health care systems have taken several routes to paying for health care, but they share one essential characteristic: The government guarantees that every citizen will have health insurance. They have solved a problem that for America grows worse every day.
To have an effective solution in the United States, the government must act, however Washington institutions are geared to stop or slow down targeted reform rather than promote change. In order to have effective health care reform, the principal concerns of the 38% of Americans who prefer the current funding system must be addressed convincingly— specifically,
(1) Distrust of large government programs and
(2) The fears that more government and major changes will automatically mean lower quality health care.
Reform measures must be evaluated by how well they advance the following goals:
1 Bring the rate of increases in total health care expenditures more in line with rate of inflation.
2 Ensure affordable health care coverage for all, including slowing the rates at which health insurance premiums have been increasing.
3 Improve the nation’s quality of care.
‘More care’ is not by any means always ‘better care’ and that new technologies and longer hospital stays can sometimes do harm more than help. Excessive administrative charges by insurance companies go toward marketing and underwriting, expenses that would not be incurred under a single-payer system. The drug industry, by its own figures, has spent about 2.5 times more money on marketing and administration than on research. In 2002 “the combined profits for ten drug companies in the Fortune 500 ($35.9 billion) were more than the profits for all the other 490 businesses ($33.7 billion).” There are enough potential savings possible in the current system to more than finance a national health insurance program covering everyone.