health reform

by Kim Krisberg For me, there were few better places to hear about today's 5-4 Supreme Court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act and its individual insurance mandate than at a meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA). Here in Charlotte, N.C., for APHA's Midyear Meeting, I was surrounded by hundreds of public health practitioners, researchers and advocates as we all watched the magnified scroll of Scotusblog.com, anxiously waiting for the decision. At 10:08 a.m., the blog declared: "The individual mandate survives as a tax." That was when the cheers (and tears) began. You…
Following up on last year's nine-minute animated video explaining the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Kaiser Family Foundation has produced a new interactive feature that gives examples of how different individuals' situations will change (or not) in 2014 when the law is fully implemented. Click on character - 23-year-old uninsured graphic designer Phil Butler, the Santos family who gets insurance through work, etc. - or an employer to get the details about how the individual or family's situation will change. In some cases, like when a person gets health insurance through an…