Affordable Care Act (2010-2011) liberal/conservative aspects of

ACA “does, however, uphold the liberal view on the scope of benefits, which cover the full range of medical services in a mainstream insurance policy. Although the law does not spell out the ‘essential health benefits’ in details (leaving that responsibility to the secretary of HHS), it does specifically provide for preventive services. In this respect, it is also a departure from historic practices. . . . Culminating a long shift in thinking, however, the ACA incorporates preventive care into health insurance and seeks to promote public health through provisions aimed at reducing obesity and smoking and encouraging participation in wellness programs. . . . the law establishes a Prevention and Public Health Investment Fund to support increased training of primary-care providers, scientific research on prevention, public-health education, and other purposes (Starr, 260-61). . . . The combined move toward both the conservative position on patient cost-sharing and the liberal position on preventive care illustrates the absence of any single theory of cost containment in the ACA, unless it’s an open-ended empiricism and political pragmatism – proceeding on the available data, testing out alternatives, developing better information, and trying to make more intelligent policy as far as political constraints allow (262). . . . The fate of reform will be uncertain as long as there is no political agreement about the obligation to provide health care for all, and one of the two major parties rejects that idea. According to Gallup surveys, the proportion of Republicans saying ‘ it is the responsibility of the federal government to make sure all Americans have health coverage’ fell from 38% in 2007 to 12% in 2012. . . . A commitment to care for all has traditionally been an important moral principle in medicine ‘Well, don’t obligate yourself to that,’ Justice Scalia said. If that is what his fellow conservatives believe, the United States is a long way from resolving the issue” (295-296).