Obamacare Demystified

One of the mandates of the Affordable Care Act was to reduce insurance costs to consumers, but insurance premiums have been increasing nationwide, in some cases up to several hundred dollars a month. Jonathan Weiner, professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Jay Hancock, reporter for Kaiser Health News, examine the trend and take listener questions as part of our continuing coverage of health care reform.

Medicare reform has become a central issue in the presidential campaign with both candidates vying for the senior vote. The Romney team accuses President Obama of gutting Medicare to pay for Obamacare while the President says he’s strengthening the program. The future of Medicare, and the facts about how the Affordable Health Care Act will change it, with Jonathan Weiner and Brad Herring, professors in health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

In our continuing series “Obamacare Demystified,” the short and long term political implications of states opting out of Medicaid expansion, an aspect of President Obama’s heath reform rejected by the Supreme Court. Eight governors have vowed to opt out. What will that mean for their constituents, their budgets and ultimately, if more states join the ranks, to Obamacare? With Sarah Kliff, who covers health policy for the Washington Post, and Michael Reisch, professor of social justice, University of Maryland School of Social Work.