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Growing Pains For Obamacare

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The controversial Affordable Care Act has insured millions of Americans, but left many patients frustrated. We’ll look at Obamacare’s growing pains.

In this Monday, March 31, 2014 file photo, SEIU-UHW worker Kathy Santana, left, assists Ruben Torres, 27, during a health care enrollment event at the SEIU-UHW office in Commerce, Calif. (Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP File)
In this Monday, March 31, 2014 file photo, SEIU-UHW worker Kathy Santana, left, assists Ruben Torres, 27, during a health care enrollment event at the SEIU-UHW office in Commerce, Calif. (Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP File)

Donald Trump says he’ll scrap Obamacare and replace it with something really awesome. Bernie Sanders says forget it, just give Medicare to everybody. Hillary Clinton says she’ll fix what needs fixing in the Affordable Care Act. So, how is Obamacare actually doing? How’s it working? There’s a lot more coverage out there. Growing pains too. Premiums headed up. Out of pocket pain. This hour On Point: a clear-eyed check-up on Obamacare.
-Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Daniel Polsky, executive director of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor of medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine. Professor of health care management at the Wharton School. Senior economist on health care issues in the President’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2007-2008. (@healthecon_dan)

Gail Wilensky, economist and senior fellow at Project Hope, an international health education foundation. Former administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, directing the Medicare and Medicaid programs under President George H.W. Bush. (@gailwilenskycom)

From Tom's Reading List

2017: The Year of the Obamacare 'Death Spiral'? — "UnitedHealthcare’s decision to not offer Affordable Care Act exchange plans next year in “at least 26 of the 34 states where it sold 2016 coverage” may soon be followed by similar announcements from other health care insurers. At least that is one implication that can be drawn from the findings reported in a new paper analyzing the performance of insurers that offered exchange coverage in 2014." (The National Interest)

Hillary Clinton Takes a Step to the Left on Health Care — "As she tries to clinch the nomination, Mrs. Clinton is moving to the left on health care and this week took a significant step in her opponent’s direction, suggesting she would like to give people the option to buy into Medicare. “I’m also in favor of what’s called the public option, so that people can buy into Medicare at a certain age,” Mrs. Clinton said on Monday at a campaign event in Virginia. Mr. Sanders calls his single-payer health care plan “Medicare for all.” What Mrs. Clinton proposed was a sort of Medicare for more." (New York Times)

Study: Trump healthcare plan would end coverage for 21M — "A new analysis reports that Donald Trump’s healthcare plan would result in about 21 million people losing health insurance and cost about $270 billion over 10 years.  The analysis, from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), looks at the healthcare plan that Trump released earlier this month, which includes many popular Republican concepts." (The Hill)

This program aired on May 18, 2016.

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