What is a Healthy Nation? A Closer Look at Health Care in the US
Given the focus on the pandemic with the coronavirus, people are looking intently at health care in its many manifestations. While looking forward, it pays to consider how the country has seesawed from finding a solution that benefits all to attempt to destroy a hybrid universal health care.
The San Francisco Bay Area values entrepreneurs, people like Steve Jobs, who built their fortunes based on their own wisdom and hard work. San Francisco also values the social safety net that is there to help those in our society who are not able to make it on their own. In the medical arena, for example, San Francisco is committed to health care access for all residents. “Healthy San Francisco” became the first municipal American government program designed to provide health insurance for all of its residents. Started in 2007, it operates for those San Francisco residents age 18 or older with income up to 500% of the federal poverty level who are uninsured and ineligible for MediCal or Medicare.
Similarly, at the state level, Massachusetts passed legislation in 2006 providing medical insurance in almost all of its state’s residents. The program, signed by Republican Governor Mitt Romney, served in large part as a model for the 2010 national Affordable Care Act (ACA), signed by Democratic President Barack Obama. The ACA, commonly referred to as “Obamacare,” was…
