Affordable Care Act: Update and reality check

Hour 1

Guests: Robert Field and Sarah Kliff

All eyes were on HealthCare.gov on Saturday. The White House pledged that on that day, November 30, the government website would work for the “vast majority” of users in search of health insurance coverage through the federal insurance marketplace. Meanwhile there are indications that some state health exchanges are seeing an increase in the number of people signing up for insurance plans – news that some say is encouraging for the new health care law. And for those consumers who received insurance cancellation notices since the law went into effect last month, the President recently announced an extension for one year of those policies that don’t meet the minimum requirements of the Affordable Care Act. All that said, there are still concerns that the law and the systems supporting it are just too complicated to work effectively. In this hour of Radio Times we’ll get a reality check and update on the implementation of the new health care law from two guests who have been watching it closely. Drexel professorROBERT FIELD studies and writes about the law and SARAH KLIFF covers health policy for the Washington Post.