photo overloaded IV pole

Do you understand what is going on with Obamacare and what your choices are?  If you do, you are way ahead of most people.  No thanks to all the political posturing and misleading information shoved at us, the facts about this big change in our health care system are not well-known.

There is a lot in the ACA Obamacare that I like.  The restrictions placed on insurers, preventing them from excluding people based on prior conditions and limiting their administrative charges, are very good.  Major health problems are a very common cause of bankruptcy, so I am happy that the ACA includes measures that should lower that risk. It is crazy that in this country, one of the wealthiest in the world, the health of so many is compromised because they don’t have insurance.

The current situation, where people end up in emergency rooms for medical care either because they are so very sick or don’t have the money/insurance to get treated, is inefficient and far too expensive. Providing care to those without insurance drives costs up, partly because prevention is cheaper, but also because the costs of this uninsured care eventually get passed on to those who are insured. Hopefully, insuring everyone will level this out and then reduce costs overall.

With such a big change as well as the involvement of a gargantuan bureaucracy, the uncertainties and details of implementation are as concerning as the deficiencies.  I think we will be better off.  At the same time, given the unfavorable experiences I have had with insurers, especially Medicare, I am concerned that it might make it even more difficult to keep my practice going.  So, yes, I am anxious as well.

The best site I have found explaining the effects of ACA (Obamacare) is this one (American Public Health Association).  It is well organized and provides information about what actually IS going on and what your choices are.  There are numerous links for additional information about specific individual circumstances and decisions. 

Even simpler is this one (Consumer’s Union Summary

You have three months to get your homework done.  Better get to it.

Written by 

Michael Carlston, MD is an internationally recognized authority in the integration of conventional and complementary medicine in clinical practice, as well as medical education, research and organizational consulting. Practicing in Santa Rosa, California, Dr. Carlston was voted “Best General Physician In Sonoma County, California” by readers of the Sonoma County Independent newspaper and also named one of the outstanding physicians in the Bay Area by San Francisco Focus Magazine. With 30+ years in private practice, his expertise is in nutrition, homeopathy and sports medicine.