The state of Obamacare in 2017

Footage of the Senate’s Obamacare repeal vote, which passed 51-48. Watch on mute, pair perhaps with a dirge of your choice.

↩︎ posted Jan. 9, 2017

Obamacare less popular than its synonym, the Affordable Care Act

Obama says he’s happy to let Trump take up the healthcare reform mantle, even offering to let him call the replacement Trumpcare.

Obama came to embrace the eponymous act—which some labeled a blunder. But whether his fault or a miracle of the spin machine, Obamacare is much less popular than its real name, the Affordable Care Act. E.g., eighty percent of Republicans favor creating insurance pools, arguably the law’s central innovation.

↩︎ posted Jan. 9, 2017

Behavioral science shows that people are biased in favor of the status quo, and have a tendency to avoid cognitively onerous activities like reevaluating the health insurance plan they are on.

Better to have been insured and lost than never to have been insured at all. Psychology suggests people will push to regain Obamacare-related policies.

↩︎ STAT, posted Jan. 9, 2017

Republicans dither over how best to dice up Obamacare

Even if Senate Republicans seem to be mellowing on the idea of going forward with an immediate repeal, an enormous range of benefits are at risk.

Susan Collins from Maine isn’t ready without more information about the replacement, but that isn’t so much of a surprise as the fact that Senators Paul, Cotton, and Corker agree they need to see a replacement before repeal.

But don’t hold your breath: Trump’s specter looms so large above the whole thing enrollment has already started going down.

↩︎ posted Jan. 9, 2017

Obamacare succeeded, in a sample of 15 million cases, in reducing readmission

Applying fees successfully changed behavior of hospitals with high rates of patients who had trouble after leaving care.

↩︎ posted Jan. 9, 2017

Donald Trump’s Republican Congress convened only three days ago, and members are already finding that eliminating Obamacare will be far messier, politically, than devising and implementing it was for Democrats.

If Republicans are smart, they’ll work to improve the parts of Obamacare that their constituents want improved, while leaving the general framework in place.

↩︎ The New Republic, posted Jan. 9, 2017

Universal childcare remains a political goal—and it’s almost been a reality twice

Hillary Clinton’s goal was to double the child tax credit to spur childcare, an important public health investment, “the most important investment in lifelong health and well-being.”

Universal childcare was almost a reality in the United States not once but twice, once in the ’40s and then again in the ’70s. Today, it remains highly inaccessible for working families, with “childcare deserts” in half the ZIP codes in a recent study.

Universal childcare remains a political goal, though of course we don’t have much to look forward to from the White House on that front.

↩︎ posted Jan. 9, 2017