Americans Benefit from New Health Law

Last night I heard a politician say that Americans do not like the current health care policy known as the Affordable Care Act or ACA.  I do not think that is true.  

Many people are already benefiting from the law which has not yet been fully implemented.  The law can save you money and this WSJ article (yes the Wall St Journal) gives several examples.  Pay special attention to item 7 as it gives you the same advice that I offered here in 2009!  Interestingly, I was also referring to a WSJ article in that post.  

The WSJ article that pertains to the 2012 benefits is a nice accompaniment for this post, but the inspiration for today  was the statement from the politician.  

Money is the focus of my response.


Does healthcare reform drive up health care costs or address them?  To answer that, or to begin a dialogue, let's consider what we are spending the money on.  We are treating chronic disease conditions - ones that once started after the age of 50 and now exist even in children.  So we are treating hypertension and diabetes across a person's life span.  People live longer, but not free of disease. It has been said that 75% of the 2.5 trillion spent on health care is related to chronic disease. We are spending money on treatment in general - instead of prevention which costs less in the end.  We are shelling out a great deal of money for screening, scanning and medicating.

I expect that the Americans that do not like the Affordable Care Act are the ones involved in private enterprises that profit from this waste.  It is with their millions and billions that they lobby congresspersons.  The congresspersons then tell US that we do not like the law.  The law that saves us money, mandates preventative care,  gets us a rebate if our insurance provider does not follow the rules and even addresses informed eating.  Well -I LIKE IT.
Read this article.  It is not long or scientific.