Harold Pollack – ACA and AHCA Update

This week we are joined a few days early by Harold Pollack to bring you a timely update on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) repeal and American Health Care Act (AHCA) legislation that is moving quickly through congress. Harold has published widely at the interface between poverty policy and public health including the effects of health reform and the ACA. Today we talk about the current state of the repeal and replace effort in the Senate and what effects their bill would have in terms of individuals who would lose coverage or find it much more expensive should the bill pass. We also discussed the very dramatic changes the bill would likely make to Medicaid and how that might affect the poor and vulnerable people that the program serves, and in particular how it might impact the raging opiate epidemic. Lastly, we talk about what a bipartisan solution to many of the very real problems of the ACA might look like, and what impact individuals can have on policy by calling congress. You can find more information about the unusual legislative process here, and the lack of information available on the bill here. Read about the effects that changes to Medicaid might make for disabled individuals here, and listen to Matt Broaddus of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities discuss block granting and per capita caps on Medicaid here. If you would like to reach out to your Senator to talk with him or her about the legislation and how it might affect you or your patients, you can find your Senator’s contact information here. Harold is the Helen Ross Professor at the School of Social Service Administration, an Affiliate Professor in the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division and the Department of Public Health Sciences and Co-Director of The University of Chicago Crime Lab and a committee member of the Center for Health Administration Studies (CHAS) at the University of Chicago. He tweets @haroldpollack. If you like the show, please rate and review us on itunes or stitcher, which makes the show easier for others to find; and share us on social media. We tweet at @rospodcast and are on facebook at www.facebook.com/reviewofsystems. Please drop us a line at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you.