- Two Thanksgiving Thoughts for the ACAPosted 11 years ago
- Shop til you Drop at the Healthcare Marketplace Part 2: Frustration!Posted 11 years ago
- An Early Casualty in the Affordable Care FightPosted 11 years ago
- Some Good News for a ChangePosted 11 years ago
Reaching the Two Year Mark
We have stumbled and sputtered through our second year. I, as editor, am solely to blame. The election year of 2012 wrung dry a lot of topics. The partisan bickering that has characterized 2013, culminating in the shutdown, was tiresome to read, let alone write about. Obamacare is now entering a new phase where it will be tested on its results, not political rhetoric. The news is full of Obamacare 24/7. It gets to be a bit much very quickly. The media cannot resist turning every new day into soap opera. Every twitch gets blown up larger than life. Thank goodness for the Mayor of Toronto bringing needed comic relief.
I too am entering a new phase as I take up my new position as Assistant Professor of Health Policy in the Public Health Services at Penn State University MS Hershey Medical College. This is a great development and I am thrilled to be contributing in this fashion. It will further inform my writing now. The Affordable Care Act is not going away as a hot topic in the next three years and I can almost predict more fireworks as implementation continues. The Act which has nine separate titles has so many moving parts that turbulence is guaranteed.
Politics shows no sign of changing. There are legitimate concerns about the act and its ability to deliver on access and cost, but the huffing and puffing that has passed for loyal opposition has grown irritating if not outright annoying. There is no alternative right now to the ACA and a few of the market-based offerings like the Indiana plan indicate that the opposition may not fully understand the problem even at this late date. Until the GOP separates itself from the Tea Partiers, who are still seem to be resentful about the outcome of the Civil War, thoughtful Conservatives will be absent at the table at a time when they are most needed.
It is as I have implied not what we need in terms of reform but it better than we have had and we need to work with it. I shall be blogging more frequently and mixing in some of my Academic work. Meanwhile I am pleased that our associate editor Katie Walsh MacDonald who you have met through her wonderful recent pieces on the Press will being blogging about her own experiences as a newly wed Millennial approaching the Affordable Care Act as a consumer. I await the first contribution eagerly as a reader.
Tom Godfrey
Congratulations on your new job. It sounds like a rewarding and learning experience.
Thanks. I am glad you are still looking. I am excited about my Hershey opportunities. Tom
Again you’ve hit the nail solidly on the head with your usual excellent wit and insight.
I hope all is well.
Art
Thanks Art. I am very pleased you liked what I did. I start in January teaching on the graduate level. I am very happy about this. Research and other opportunities finally present themselves. Hope all is well with you and your family. Tom