Part 1 of 2
It seems like yesterday, but we are two years into the “health care reform” era. The Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) became law in March of 2010. The primary goals of the ACA are three-fold: increase coverage, reduce the cost of care and improve the quality of care. Few argue the importance of the objectives. When Congress passed the ACA:
- 45 million Americans lacked coverage;
- Health care constituted a full 16% of GNP (compared to Britain’s 8.4% and France’s 11%);
- The per capita annual cost of care was $7,290 (about double that of most industrialized countries); and
- Quality was comparatively poor (as measured by preventable deaths in the US vs. other developed nations). (more…)
