Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

Does the Affordable Care Act give the American people what they want?

George Lundberg, MD
Policy
May 3, 2011
Share
Tweet
Share

Now here’s a novel idea. What if someone asked the American people, or a demographically representative group of it, what it wants from healthcare. That would be called “market research.”

Ask the public what it wants, listen carefully, and then give it to them.

Turns out that the New York-based Commonwealth Fund has done just that.

In brief they found:

  • 72% of American adults believe that our healthcare system needs to be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt.
  • 71% have experienced difficulty in accessing a doctor without having to go to an emergency room, especially any time other than Monday through Friday, 8 to 5; 55% report wasteful poorly coordinated care; and 21% reported having experienced a medical error in the past two years.
  • 96% want accessible, coordinated, well-informed care; 94% want a medical home; 86% want doctors and nurses to work as teams; 92% want information technology applied to healthcare; and 57% want Internet access to their records and email communication with their physicians.
  • 75% expressed worry about their own future healthcare.
  • And, 86% believe that prices for all aspects of medical care including products and services should be negotiated by public and private payers to control costs and improve quality.

These results are remarkably uniformly spread across income and education levels, geographic regions, and political affiliations.

The problems cited are real and damning.

The wish list is what any sensible person would expect, especially for the kind of money that we spend.

The systematic incompetence of healthcare as experienced by “the market,” would not be tolerated by the public from the airline industry, automobile manufacturers, computer companies, restaurant chains, clothing manufacturers and sales, not even from cable TV or cell phone companies.

We in healthcare should be ashamed of ourselves.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) does address many, but not all of these issues, either directly or in pilot programs.

The problem is that even if the ACA is not found unconstitutional by the highest court, or unfunded by a hostile Congress, its full rollout is still at least three years away.

I believe that this prolonged delay to full implementation will be found by historians to have been the fatal flaw in its construct.

George Lundberg is a MedPage Today Editor-at-Large and former editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Originally published in MedPage Today. Visit MedPageToday.com for more health policy news.

ADVERTISEMENT

Prev

Dealing with a negative online review on a physician rating site

May 3, 2011 Kevin 31
…
Next

People feel anger and fear over our health care situation

May 3, 2011 Kevin 3
…

Tagged as: Patients, Public Health & Policy

Post navigation

< Previous Post
Dealing with a negative online review on a physician rating site
Next Post >
People feel anger and fear over our health care situation

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

More by George Lundberg, MD

  • a desk with keyboard and ipad with the kevinmd logo

    Pathologists face a stark career choice

    George Lundberg, MD
  • a desk with keyboard and ipad with the kevinmd logo

    A culture of cover-up has slowed the patient safety movement

    George Lundberg, MD
  • a desk with keyboard and ipad with the kevinmd logo

    Do drugs aid and abet genius or does genius lead to drugs?

    George Lundberg, MD

More in Policy

  • U.S. health care leadership must prepare for policy-driven change

    Lee Scheinbart, MD
  • How locum tenens work helps physicians and APPs reclaim control

    Brian Sutter
  • Why Medicaid cuts should alarm every doctor

    Ilan Shapiro, MD
  • Why physician voices matter in the fight against anti-LGBTQ+ laws

    BJ Ferguson
  • The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care

    Carlin Lockwood
  • What Adam Smith would say about America’s for-profit health care

    M. Bennet Broner, PhD
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • When did we start treating our lives like trauma?

      Maureen Gibbons, MD | Physician
    • Why removing fluoride from water is a public health disaster

      Steven J. Katz, DDS | Conditions
    • How to speak the language of leadership to improve doctor wellness [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Why some doctors age gracefully—and others grow bitter

      Patrick Hudson, MD | Physician
    • How to survive a broken health care system without losing yourself [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • How the shingles vaccine could help prevent dementia

      Marc Arginteanu, MD | Conditions
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

      Hiba Fatima Hamid | Education
    • What the world must learn from the life and death of Hind Rajab

      Saba Qaiser, RN | Conditions
    • The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care

      Carlin Lockwood | Policy
    • Addressing the physician shortage: How AI can help, not replace

      Amelia Mercado | Tech
    • Why medical students are trading empathy for publications

      Vijay Rajput, MD | Education
    • Physician patriots: the forgotten founders who lit the torch of liberty

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • How to speak the language of leadership to improve doctor wellness [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Ethical dilemmas in using unclaimed bodies for medical research

      M. Bennet Broner, PhD | Physician
    • The Nova Oath: a physician’s pledge to courageous and ethical care

      Kenneth Ro, MD | Physician
    • AI is not a threat to radiologists. It’s a distraction from what truly matters in medicine.

      Fardad Behzadi, MD | Tech
    • How deep transcranial magnetic stimulation is transforming mental health care

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • True stories of doctors reclaiming their humanity in a system that challenges it

      Alae Kawam, DO & Kim Downey, PT & Nicole Solomos, DO | Physician

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 24 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • When did we start treating our lives like trauma?

      Maureen Gibbons, MD | Physician
    • Why removing fluoride from water is a public health disaster

      Steven J. Katz, DDS | Conditions
    • How to speak the language of leadership to improve doctor wellness [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Why some doctors age gracefully—and others grow bitter

      Patrick Hudson, MD | Physician
    • How to survive a broken health care system without losing yourself [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • How the shingles vaccine could help prevent dementia

      Marc Arginteanu, MD | Conditions
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

      Hiba Fatima Hamid | Education
    • What the world must learn from the life and death of Hind Rajab

      Saba Qaiser, RN | Conditions
    • The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care

      Carlin Lockwood | Policy
    • Addressing the physician shortage: How AI can help, not replace

      Amelia Mercado | Tech
    • Why medical students are trading empathy for publications

      Vijay Rajput, MD | Education
    • Physician patriots: the forgotten founders who lit the torch of liberty

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • How to speak the language of leadership to improve doctor wellness [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Ethical dilemmas in using unclaimed bodies for medical research

      M. Bennet Broner, PhD | Physician
    • The Nova Oath: a physician’s pledge to courageous and ethical care

      Kenneth Ro, MD | Physician
    • AI is not a threat to radiologists. It’s a distraction from what truly matters in medicine.

      Fardad Behzadi, MD | Tech
    • How deep transcranial magnetic stimulation is transforming mental health care

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • True stories of doctors reclaiming their humanity in a system that challenges it

      Alae Kawam, DO & Kim Downey, PT & Nicole Solomos, DO | Physician

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Does the Affordable Care Act give the American people what they want?
24 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...