How to fix Obamacare (and possibly reduce Medicare’s cost growth)

A few weeks ago the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives introduced a healthcare reform proposal that threatened to increase the number of uninsured by 24 million over a decade, including a large fraction of that number in the near future. That estimate came from the Congressional Budget Office, headed by a recently-installed Republican appointee. The proposal proved unpopular with most of the public and with both moderate and far-right Republicans in the House. It was pulled off the agenda just before a scheduled vote because everyone knew it couldn’t pass the House and had even less support in the Senate.

Since then public support for the Affordable Care Act — Obamacare — has risen, with a large fraction of people wanting Congress to fix what’s wrong with it rather than radically start over. See, for example, this survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation released in early April. So how could Obamacare be fixed?

One more time I’m going to quote pediatrician, writer, and medical school professor Dr Aaron Carroll. You can follow the links to sources of more information. The first clip below is from January and the second from late March, but both are still relevant.