Why Obamacare is not achieving its name

This segment on WAMC's Roundtable offers a good explanation of why the “Affordable Care Act” has done little to make health care more affordable. Lots of people in the industry have made out like bandits in recent years. Spoiler alert: those who actually treat patients – doctors and nurses – are not among them.



Journalist Steven Brill, author of  America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Back-Room Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System, points out that “not-for-profit” hospitals have higher profit margins than the for-profit ones.

Brill offers a great anecdote of him presenting an explanation of benefits letter to the CEO of his health insurance company and the CEO being unable to explain what it means. This is not what happens in any kind of rational industry.

Until we decide to implement Medicare for All, which removes the profit-motive for those who are nothing but money changers, our sick care system will be a mess.