politicality.

So you've had to been hiding under a very well secluded rock to not know that Barack Obama was re-elected. Moving beyond my personal political beliefs about whether this was a great move or a terrible move for the country, I want to talk about the election from the standpoint of someone going into the medical profession.

Truthfully, we don't know exactly how this is going to affect the future of medicine. But one thing is for sure, it's going to change it. While I know that many practitioners are upset about this (electronic medical records are evil, billing is a nightmare, etc), I don't think that change is necessarily a bad thing, but it definitely is something new and different. Further, I am in the really lucky few years where things won't be a change for me...I actually am going to be trained under the new system! The transition towards ObamaCare actually started way back in 2010, so that means that the kinks are already starting to be worked out in various parts of the system. In addition, other parts of the law will be introduced in the coming years, so it's not going to be a monumental change all at once like some people are imagining it to be.

Here's a quick run down of just a few things that have changed or will be changing as a result of the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. "ObamaCare"):

• insurance companies can no longer discriminate against adults and children with pre-existing conditions
• more (but not all) Americans will be insured under the individual mandate/Medicaid/Medicare/private health insurance (people can pay a fee to opt-out of insurance if they'd like) 
• insurance rates should become more competitive in the public sector
• Medicaid and Medicare reform...it's not perfect, but it's a start!
• more of each dollar spent on medical care will actually be going to medical care--80-85% must go to care instead of administration, etc, or else the provider must reimburse the patients
• more emphasis on preventative health care (if you know me, you know that I think this is GREAT! If you don't know me, you can read about my feelings here.)
• children can be covered under their parent's insurance until the age of 26 
• better prescription drug coverage for seniors who are in the Medicare donut hole
• funding and loan repayment for students interested in healthcare fields

Lastly, but I think pretty darn importantly:

• moving from a fee-for-service system of care to a system of quality-based care

It's nowhere near perfect, but it's still reform. If we look at the Protestant Reformation (y'all know that studying Religion from an academic perspective is another one of my passions too, right?), we see that reforming things takes time. Although Martin Luther is often credited with starting the reformation with the 95 theses in 1517 CE, we know that it started before his time (don't get me wrong, I think Luther is SUPER awesome and if you want to know why please ask!). The beginnings of reformation can be traced back to the Council of Constance (1414-1417 CE) and even to the Great Schism (1378-1416 CE), far before Luther's time.  And it didn't end until after much blood was shed in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648 CE) and the Treaty of Westphalia (1648 CE) was signed.

So if it takes the Church almost 300 years to reform its system (let's be real, no church really is ever done reforming...or at least it shouldn't be because that's when it dies), why would we think our medical system would be any different?

It's going to take time. But this is just one step. Hopefully a step in the right direction for the good of our PATIENTS.

Because patients are what it's all about anyway.






My information for this post was derived from http://obamacarefacts.com/affordablecareact-summary.php and http://www.healthcare.gov/law/features/index.html. Please feel free to check my fact-checking abilities and let me know if I've screwed something up!