I received a better deal from Obamacare

HIGHLIGHTS OF HISTORY

• Paul Begala: My family register since Obamacare which provided better benefits, low price
• He said law provides greater security for people with pre-existing conditions
• Begala said that predictions of the Republican Party of the undoing of Obamacare have not materialized
• It says that more Americans are likely to approve of Obamacare as time passes

Editor's Note: Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist and CNN political commentator, was a political consultant to Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992 and was Adviser to Clinton in the White House. A consultant to the Super PAC is pro-Obama, the actions of United States priorities. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) - I signed up for health care through the affordable care Act last week.

I did it for one reason and one reason: was a good deal for my family. In fact, it was better treatment than we were before the ACA.

The site, which received so much negative publicity (well deserved) by not launching, is sucked. The options generated for us were more clearly delineated that had given us in the past by a private insurance broker. The benefits were clearly spelt out, as they were the deductibles and co-payments. We are fortunate in that we don't need subsidies, and even the exchange of Obama found us even a better deal we had found in our own.

Paul Begala

Let me be clear: this was not a political statement. This is the health of my family. If I have the best care through the Web of Palin I would. In addition, business decisions are taken in our family, by my wife, who has an MBA and a master's degree in public administration. I have not had a checkbook from the Reagan administration, but because this decision was very personal and consistent, we did it as a team.

In the end, it wasn't a difficult decision. On the one hand, we have the best coverage under the ACA. On the other hand, it costs less. I'm not a believer persuasive Republican, but even I was surprised how my obviously superior options are under the new law. I knew that there was no death panels, and I imagined a plan originated by Newt Gingrich, the Heritage Foundation, and Mitt Romney could not be Marxist. But had not taken the time to do the calculations to determine whether the ACA would be much better for me. It is.

The exchange of federal health best served me that the private sector had. So I signed up. My doc is still my doc. My insurance company is still a private corporation - not (gasp!) a government agency. (Although sign today and if Medicare that they would leave me; the senior State health insurance program is fantastic). Conclusion is that the ACA works, period.

And here's the beauty part: even if you don't want to use in all exchanges, stay to benefit from the Affordable Care Act. If you or someone in your family has a pre-existing condition, you're a winner under the ACA. The same if, God forbid, you have a disease or an accident that would have exceeded their limit of coverage pre-Obamacare: ACA outlaws coverage caps. If you are a young adult can now be covered in plan from their parents until the age of 26, or a patient from Medicare that you need preventive care or has fallen into the Donut Hole, come along too.

Mitch McConnell: Another view of Obamacare

All those rights - and more - it would disappear if the Republicans had repealed the Affordable Care Act. The House controlled by Republicans has 54 times voted to do just that.

Despite spending millions in advertising, the law is losing the debate. The latest Kaiser Family Fund survey shows that, although the new health law is even it is not popular, 59 percent of Americans want to keep the ACA as - is or modify it slightly. Only 18% repeal it altogether and another 11% to repeal it and replace it with an alternative to the Republican party.

As more and more Americans actually deal with first hand health reform, since they actually receive new rights and new features, and as the parade of horrible right-wing fails to materialize, I suspect that support for the ACA will continue to grow.

As one of the millions of Americans who benefit from ACA, I just want to say thank you, President Obama. And thank you, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and all in Congress who voted for the Affordable Care Act. (Obviously, the individual situation of each person is unique. It is very possible that some people will not share my positive experience. You have nothing to lose by checking it.)

Thanks also to all the Republicans who voted for it. Wait, there are none. That's fine, I guess. There were Republicans who voted for the Clinton Economic Plan in 1993, and led to balanced budgets and 23 million new jobs. The Republicans of the time predicted doom and depression of pass the Clinton Economic Plan. Their successors are predicting the same about the Affordable Care Act. And it will only look like fools in the eyes of history.

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Published on: 11:55 PM

Experts Urge 'Seismic Shift' in Approach to Better U.S. Health Care

Improving education, social services can help Americans live longer, healthier lives, panel says

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 15, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Medicine alone cannot improve the health of the nation -- not when one in five Americans lives in unsafe neighborhoods where pollution, crime and joblessness are prevalent; nutritious food is scarce; and the well-being of young people is at risk, an expert panel reports.

What's needed is a "seismic shift" in the way the nation approaches health care, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Commission to Build a Healthier America.

The panel's exhaustive report urges leaders in public, private, nonprofit and academic settings to work together to address social and environmental factors that impact people's health.

"We must put just as much energy into creating conditions that will keep people well in the first place as we do into providing treatment when it is needed," the commission wrote.

The 16-member panel, led by Dr. Mark McClellan, former administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and Alice Rivlin, former director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, identified three areas for improvement:

• Investment in early childhood education.
• Development of safe housing.
• Incentives for medical providers to address nonmedical factors that impact health.

The panel said these actions have the greatest potential to impact overall health.

"Consumers know full well that the realities of their everyday lives -- where they live, the food they eat, whether they can pay their bills at the end of the month -- impact their health," said commission member Rebecca Onie, co-founder and CEO of Boston-based Health Leads.

"Each of us has a responsibility to make healthy choices, but ... for many folks that's just harder to do because they don't have access to the resources they need to be healthy," said Onie, whose organization connects low-income patients with food, heat and other basic needs.

The Commission to Build a Healthier America issued its first recommendations in 2009. The new analysis, released Monday, builds on that work by providing specific advice for advancing the nation's health and highlighting community-based initiatives.

Carol Naughton, senior vice president of Purpose Built Communities, an Atlanta-based nonprofit consulting group that helps local leaders across the country rebuild struggling neighborhoods, praised the commission's report.

"I think this is going to be a real call to action, and it provides good granular examples of what you can do to get better outcomes," Naughton said.

The revitalization of Atlanta's East Lake neighborhood serves as a model for change. Community leaders replaced poverty-stricken housing with high-quality, mixed-income apartments. They also opened the city's first charter school, which is now ranked first among Atlanta's schools. And they partnered with the YMCA, which provides physical-education classes.

Thanks to safe sidewalks, about half of the school's 1,300 children walk to school each day, Naughton said. A cycling club was launched, healthy breakfasts and lunches are served, and students are much trimmer than when the school first opened, she said.

Investing in America's youth should be a national priority, the commission said. Yet the United States ranks 25th out of 29 industrialized counties in early childhood education.

According to the latest research, children exposed to the stress of poverty "grow up to be adults with very unhealthy outcomes," said Jessie Rasmussen, president of the Buffet Early Childhood Fund in Omaha, Neb.

Enter Educare, a network of full-day, year-round schools serving at-risk children from birth to age 5, one of several model programs mentioned in the report.

Kids at Educare schools get high-quality early learning opportunities and access to health, nutrition and mental-health consultants. That offsets the negative effects of stress, said Rasmussen, whose nonprofit organization partners with the Chicago-based Ounce of Prevention Fund, which created the Educare model.

One of the three main recommendations from the Commission to Build a Healthier America targets the medical community. The commission said health care providers should work more closely with community organizations to help link patients with nonmedical services.

It's not just the poorest of the poor who need help, but people working two or three jobs to make ends meet, Onie said. Health Leads recently began working with a new clinic in Boston, at which 59 percent of patients reported having an unmet resource need.

"They were reporting, for example, that they couldn't refrigerate their diabetes medications because the utilities company had cut off their electricity," Onie said. "Or they couldn't afford heat at home even though the cold air was triggering their asthma."

The commission did not determine the cost of the proposed reforms, but it might require making tough decisions on how to redeploy existing resources to yield the greatest impact on health, Onie said.

This much is clear: The United States cannot afford to devote increasing levels of spending to medical care, especially for preventable health conditions, the panel said.

Avis Vidal, a professor of urban planning at Wayne State University in Detroit, said not all health interventions are costly. "Moms walking kids to school isn't expensive if moms are not employed in full-time jobs," she said.

"But things like [making] sure all assisted low-income housing developments are near good public transportation -- that's big bucks," Vidal said.

SOURCES: Rebecca Onie, co-founder and CEO, Health Leads, Boston; Carol Naughton, senior vice president, Purpose Built Communities, Atlanta; Jessie Rasmussen, president, Buffet Early Childhood Fund, Omaha, Neb.; Avis Vidal, Ph.D., professor of urban planning, department of urban studies and planning, Wayne State University, Detroit; Time to Act: Investing in the Health of Our Children and Communities, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America, January 2014

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Published on: 11:32 AM