Is Obamacare Enough? Without Single-Payer, Patchwork U.S. Healthcare Leaves Millions Uninsured

Despite helping expanding affordable insurance, "Obamacare" maintains the patchwork U.S. healthcare system that will still mean high costs, weak plans and, in many cases, no insurance for millions of Americans. We host a debate on whether the Affordable Care Act goes far enough to address the nation’s health crisis with two guests: Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a primary care physician and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program; and John McDonough, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and former senior adviser on national health reform to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Between 2003 and 2008, McDonough served as executive director of Health Care for All in Massachusetts, playing a key role in the passage of the 2006 Massachusetts health reform law, known as "Romneycare," regarded by many as the model for the current federal healthcare law.

Transcript

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AMY GOODMAN: We turn to a discussion on whether Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare," goes far enough in addressing the nation’s health crisis. The New York Times recently reported the new healthcare law will leave out two-thirds of the nation’s poor blacks and single mothers and more than half the nation’s low-wage workers who don’t have insurance. That’s because they live in 26 states controlled by Republicans that have rejected the vast expansion of Medicaid.