Advocate Community Providers
IN PUSHING FOR REFORM, LAWMAKERS FAIL TO CONSIDER ‘SMARTER’ SPENDING ON HEALTHCARE
by ACP CEO Mario J. Paredes
It is the story of the summer of 2017: a nation’s differences laid bare as Congress struggles to formulate an acceptable version of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Is the proposed replacement “mean” or does it not go far enough? How do leaders reconcile the practical drive to slash the nation’s public healthcare budget with the repugnant (and politically unattractive) prospect of leaving at least 22 million fewer Americans with health insurance coverage? How do legislators come to terms with proposed Medicaid cuts that would jeopardize health care provisions for more than 70 million people—among them children, the elderly, people with disabilities, and pregnant women—by 2026?
There is no doubt that healthcare expenditures in the U.S. need to be curbed; compared to other industrialized nations, we spend the most per capita but deliver inferior care. Medicaid as we know it has been prone to waste and fraud. However, simply cutting the healthcare budget will only worsen the situation for those at the lower rungs of society. These are the men, women, and children our government is duty-bound to provide for, and provide for well.
True reform—a goal apparently lost in the partisan bickering—would have to get smarter about exactly how healthcare dollars are spent, so that cost can decrease even as the quality of care improves. Read more…
The Guardian
WHY DO WE THINKPOOR PEOPLE ARE POOR BECAUSE OF THEIR OWN BAD CHOICES?
Cecilia Mo thought she knew all about growing up poor when she began teaching at Thomas Jefferson senior high school in south Los Angeles. As a child, she remembered standing in line, holding a free lunch ticket. But it turned out that Mo could still be shocked by poverty and violence – especially after a 13-year-old student called her in obvious panic. He had just seen his cousin get shot in his front yard.
For Mo, hard work and a good education took her to Harvard and Stanford. But when she saw just how much chaos and violence her LA students faced, she recognized how lucky she had been growing up with educated parents and a safe, if financially stretched, home.
Now, as an assistant professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University, Mo studies how to get upper-class Americans to recognize the advantages they have. She is among a group of scholars trying to understand how rich and poor alike justify inequality. What these academics are finding is that the American dream is being used to rationalize a national nightmare. Read more…