Health Care Blog

The Third Anniversary of the Affordable Care Act

This month marks the third anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Provisions of the Act have already helped millions of young adults obtain health insurance coverage and have made preventive services more affordable for most Americans. When fully implemented, the law will expand coverage to an estimated 27 million previously uninsured Americans and ensure the availability of affordable coverage through traditional employer-sponsored insurance and the new Health Insurance Marketplaces (often referred to as Exchanges).

This blog post and the accompanying report describe progress toward slowing the growth of health care costs and improving the efficiency of the health care system.

Growth in Health Care Costs Has Already Begun to Slow

There are signs that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has already started to help slow the growth of health care costs and improve the quality of care through value-based purchasing programs, strengthened primary care and care coordination, and pioneering Medicare payment reforms. For each year from 2009 to 2011, National Health Expenditure data show the real rate of annual growth in overall health spending was between 3.0 and 3.1 percent, the lowest rates since reporting began in 1960.

With the exception of a spike in 2006, the year Medicare Part D was introduced, the growth rate of Medicare spending per enrollee—a measure of health care spending intensity—has been on a downward trend since 2001, with a particularly significant slowdown over the past three years (see Figure 1). While Medicare enrollment is expected to increase 3 percent a year over the next decade, the rate of growth in spending per enrollee is now projected to be approximately the same as the rate of growth of GDP per capita, according to the CBO and Office of the Actuary at CMS.

Black Men: Here’s Your Wake-up Call

Ed. note: This is cross-posted forom The Grio.

Have you received a wake-up call yet?

For too many of us, it takes a sudden wake-up call — in the form of a major or minor health crisis — to make us realize that we’re not invincible.  And tragically, for some, that call comes too late.

As black men, we often don’t talk about our health or seek help until something goes wrong. We may exercise and eat right. We may know how our habits today affect how we feel. But what about tomorrow? Are we making the right choices to stay healthy as we grow older? Most importantly, are we having the right conversations about health and well-being with our sons and our fathers, with our brothers, our colleagues, our neighbors, and our friends?

According to the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, black men are 30 percent more likely to die from heart disease and 60 percent more likely to die from a stroke than white men. And unfortunately, the list goes on — black men still suffer from higher rates of disease and chronic illness such as prostate cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Unless we act now, these disparities will continue to affect generations to come.  Their existence should be a wake-up call for all black men. It’s time to invest not only in our own health, but in the health of our communities.

That starts by putting ourselves in the driver’s seat when it comes to our own care. The health care law signed by President Obama in 2010 is removing many of the obstacles to health care we’ve faced in the past. It provides access to preventive services – like screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes – at no cost to us.