My colleague Jeff Kluger, who covers health and science, has penned an impassioned defense of the Affordable Care Act, inspired by his kids’ reaction to his recent outpatient surgery. An excerpt is below. Full piece here. Discuss.
I had a bit of surgery last week. It wasn’t much — the kind of outpatient operation that would once have had me hospitalized for three or four days, but with new, less invasive procedures, had me in and out in five hours. When I arrived home, my daughters (ages 7 and 9) met me at the door dressed in doctor outfits — a sweet welcome that made me smile. Before they provided me any make-believe care, however, the 7-year-old handed me a sheaf of homemade forms and said, “Please, sign these.” I’m not making this up.
My daughters are too young to know anything but a health care industry in which no visit to a doctor’s office can begin without a flurry of forms, a question about your health insurance and the ritual xeroxing of your card for safekeeping. Much of this — though certainly not all — is a result of our nation’s patchwork of coverage and plans as well as our lack of a coherent system of electronic medical records.
But my daughters — and everyone else’s sons and daughters — are at least growing up in an era in which a real (and admittedly imperfect) step had been taken toward changing things, with the signing of President Obama’s signature health-reform law six months ago.
