What the US " Health Care Reform " Debate Did Not Address

It looks like the bizarre process in the US Senate ostensibly to " repeal and replace Obamacare " (aka the Affordable Care Act, or ACA)may be ending, at least for now.  I can only hope that further discussion of health care reform will let sanity prevail, and start to address the major issues that have led to the massive dysfunction of US health care, but were not discussed during the latest kerfuffle (and not even discussed much in the real debate that preceded the introduction of the ACA.)OnHealth Care Renewal we have discussed some of the issues that have received much less attention than the Senate process and the push by the Trump administration to get rid of Obamacare.  I submit the country needs to revisit these issues (and in some cases face them for the first time).Health Care DysfunctionDespite some protestations to the contrary (e.g.,here), the US health care system has been plagued by dysfunction.  According to a recentCommonwealth Fund study, the US was ranked 11 out of 11 in health care quality, but 1 out of 11 in costs.  Traditionally, health care reform has targeted ongoing problems in the cost, accessibility and quality of health care.  The ACA notably seems to haveimproved access, but hardly addressed cost or quality.Early on we noticed a number of factors that seemed enable increasing dysfunction, but were not much discussed.  These factors notably distorted how medical and health care decisions were made, leading to overuse of...
Source: Health Care Renewal - Category: Health Management Tags: health care reform Obamacare ppaca Source Type: blogs