What do you think?
Rate this book
Obamacare: What's in It for Me?: What Everyone Needs to Know About the Affordable Care Act
On January 1, 2014, the most important consumer protections in ObamaCare (the Affordable Care Act) go into effect. With both supporters and opponents of the law debating its merits and its controversial rollout, there is a need for “news-you-can-use” types of resources from credible third parties. Enter Wendell Potter, author of Deadly Spin and former health insurance executive. What's in It for Me? is the authoritative source for Americans needing to know how the law will affect them and their How will it affect the millions of Americans who already have coverage through their employers? People who work for small companies that don't offer coverage? The unemployed? People who are in their 20s, 30s and 40s, some of whom may find that coverage costs them more than before? Older Americans not yet eligible for Medicare, many of whom will be able to get much more affordable coverage? Medicare beneficiaries? Low-to moderate income individuals and families? People with pre-existing conditions? Children? As a former insurance industry insider and now a recognized expert on ObamaCare, Wendell Potter is perfectly positioned to explain to a wide audience, hungry for the real story (without the spin), of just what this health care overhaul means for all of us.
- GenresPolitics
106 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 6, 2013
7 people are currently reading
76 people want to read
About the author
Wendell Potter
9 books42 followersWendell Potter is the senior fellow on health care at the Center for Media and Democracy. He has appeared on countless television and radio programs and has been quoted in newspapers and magazines across the country. Prior to his twenty-five-year career in public relations, he was a journalist for the Memphis Press-Scimitar and Scripps Howard news service.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 24, 2014
Obamacare: What’s in It for Me?: What Everyone Needs to Know About the Affordable Care Act by Wendell Potter
“Obamacare: What’s in It for Me?" is an excellent succinct look at the impact of the Affordable Care Act and how it may apply to you. Former public-relations executive Wendell Potter provides readers with a much needed guide on this important piece of legislation that will help remove the fog of political spin. This very useful 95 page-book includes the following twelve chapters: 1. Why We Needed Reform in the First Place, 2. Essential Health Benefits: An End to “Junk Insurance”, 3. It Affects Everyone I Know—And Everyone I Don’t Know, Too, 4. What’s in it for Me and My Fellow 77 Million Baby Boomers?, 5. What’s in it for Lou and Other Americans Working for Big Companies?, 6. What’s in it for Emily and Other Young People Without Insurance?, 7. What’s in it for Alex and others Offered “Junk Insurance”?, 8. What’s in it for Granny and Other Medicare Seniors?, 9. What’s in it for Bobbie Ann and Hank and Millions of Other Farmers and Small-Town Folks?, 10. What’s in it for Donna—And Most of the Rest of Us?, 11. What’s in it for Mary Ellen and Other Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners?, and 12. Myths, Distortions, and Outright Lies.
Positives:
1. A well-written guide that cuts to the chase. Readers can easily navigate this book for future reference.
2. A timely and accessible guide.
3. Excellent format. The book flows smoothly and logically covering how it impacts the public by categories.
4. By applying the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to his family members Potter provides the topic warmth and makes it easier to understand how it’s going to affect the public.
5. I love how Potter discloses the impact of the ACA by category. He provides an easy reference to understand how it works by comparing it to insurance practices “Before the Affordable Care Act” (BACA)” and how it would apply now.
6. A great job of educating the public on the positives of the ACA. “Soon after the Affordable Care Act was signed into law in 2010, insurance companies could not deny coverage to children because of pre-existing conditions or kick them off their parents’ policies until they turned 26.”
7. Explains some of the consumer protections against insurance industry abuses.
8. The numbers in perspective. “According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, family premiums increased 113 percent between 2001 and 2011, while workers’ wages rose only 34 percent and inflation grew by just 27 percent.”
9. The end of junk insurance and what that was.
10. New concepts that help laypersons understand the ACA. “This is called “job lock,” an enslavement that has kept millions of America’s best and brightest locked into jobs they hate or in which their talents and passions are not being used as they could be.”
11. Defining affordability. “A plan must cost less than 9.5% of your Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) to be classified as affordable. If it is more than 9.5% of MAGI, it is unaffordable. Proceed to the health insurance marketplace.”
12. Provisions that had a direct impact on my family and likely yours too. “The ACA includes a provision that allows young people like Emily to stay on their parents’ policies until they turn 26.” Thank you ACA.
13. Those sneaky lobbyists. “Not only were the industry’s lobbyists able to get the public option stripped from the Affordable Care Act, their lobbyists were successful in persuading Congress to create a private option for Medicare beneficiaries thirteen years earlier.”
14. Pre-existing conditions. “An investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce found in 2010 that the four largest for-profit insurers in the U.S. denied one of every seven applicants because of a pre-existing condition.”
15. The impact on small businesses. “The Affordable Care Act will help both self-employed individuals and small business owners who employ fewer than 25 workers—which is a big deal when you consider that small firms employ more than half of all private sector workers in the United States, according to the Small Business Administration.”
16. An excellent chapter on myths and distortions. “PolitiFact chose the “death panels” myth as its Lie of the Year in 2009. “Government takeover” won the 2010 title.”
17. The reality of the situation. “Keep in mind that those of us who have insurance pay far more for it than necessary. That’s primarily because hospitals and other health care providers must absorb all the expense for treating the uninsured (and underinsured) who can’t pay for their own care.”
18. A very helpful glossary and additional appendices.
Negatives:
1. If you are like me you perhaps wanted more but very little to complain here.
2. No formal bibliography of supporting materials not unusual for a brief book like this.
In summary, this is an excellent and useful guide on the Affordable Care Act. Wendell Potter knows his topic well and is able to convey it in an accessible manner. This is the perfect book for the casual reader who just wants to have a basic understanding of how the ACA is going to be applied. Get it, I highly recommend it!
Further recommendations: “Deadly Spin” by the same author, “Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals” by Peter Pronovost, Ph.D., “Healing America” by T.R. Reid, “How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America” by Otis Webb Brawley, M.D. with Paul Goldberg, “Landmark: The Inside Story of America's New Health-Care Law-The Affordable Care Act-and What It Means for Us All” by The Washington Post Staff, “Overtreated” by Shannon Brownlee, “Overdiagnosed” by H. Gilbert Welsh, “Overdosed America” by John Abramson, “Selling Sickness” by Ray Moynihan, “Unaccountable” by Marty Makary, M.D., “Catastrophic Care: How American Health Care Killed My Father--and How We Can Fix It” by David Goldhill, “Sick” by Jonathan Cohn, “Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science” by Atul Gawande, and “Every Patient Tells A Story” by Lisa Sanders, M.D..
“Obamacare: What’s in It for Me?" is an excellent succinct look at the impact of the Affordable Care Act and how it may apply to you. Former public-relations executive Wendell Potter provides readers with a much needed guide on this important piece of legislation that will help remove the fog of political spin. This very useful 95 page-book includes the following twelve chapters: 1. Why We Needed Reform in the First Place, 2. Essential Health Benefits: An End to “Junk Insurance”, 3. It Affects Everyone I Know—And Everyone I Don’t Know, Too, 4. What’s in it for Me and My Fellow 77 Million Baby Boomers?, 5. What’s in it for Lou and Other Americans Working for Big Companies?, 6. What’s in it for Emily and Other Young People Without Insurance?, 7. What’s in it for Alex and others Offered “Junk Insurance”?, 8. What’s in it for Granny and Other Medicare Seniors?, 9. What’s in it for Bobbie Ann and Hank and Millions of Other Farmers and Small-Town Folks?, 10. What’s in it for Donna—And Most of the Rest of Us?, 11. What’s in it for Mary Ellen and Other Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners?, and 12. Myths, Distortions, and Outright Lies.
Positives:
1. A well-written guide that cuts to the chase. Readers can easily navigate this book for future reference.
2. A timely and accessible guide.
3. Excellent format. The book flows smoothly and logically covering how it impacts the public by categories.
4. By applying the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to his family members Potter provides the topic warmth and makes it easier to understand how it’s going to affect the public.
5. I love how Potter discloses the impact of the ACA by category. He provides an easy reference to understand how it works by comparing it to insurance practices “Before the Affordable Care Act” (BACA)” and how it would apply now.
6. A great job of educating the public on the positives of the ACA. “Soon after the Affordable Care Act was signed into law in 2010, insurance companies could not deny coverage to children because of pre-existing conditions or kick them off their parents’ policies until they turned 26.”
7. Explains some of the consumer protections against insurance industry abuses.
8. The numbers in perspective. “According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, family premiums increased 113 percent between 2001 and 2011, while workers’ wages rose only 34 percent and inflation grew by just 27 percent.”
9. The end of junk insurance and what that was.
10. New concepts that help laypersons understand the ACA. “This is called “job lock,” an enslavement that has kept millions of America’s best and brightest locked into jobs they hate or in which their talents and passions are not being used as they could be.”
11. Defining affordability. “A plan must cost less than 9.5% of your Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) to be classified as affordable. If it is more than 9.5% of MAGI, it is unaffordable. Proceed to the health insurance marketplace.”
12. Provisions that had a direct impact on my family and likely yours too. “The ACA includes a provision that allows young people like Emily to stay on their parents’ policies until they turn 26.” Thank you ACA.
13. Those sneaky lobbyists. “Not only were the industry’s lobbyists able to get the public option stripped from the Affordable Care Act, their lobbyists were successful in persuading Congress to create a private option for Medicare beneficiaries thirteen years earlier.”
14. Pre-existing conditions. “An investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce found in 2010 that the four largest for-profit insurers in the U.S. denied one of every seven applicants because of a pre-existing condition.”
15. The impact on small businesses. “The Affordable Care Act will help both self-employed individuals and small business owners who employ fewer than 25 workers—which is a big deal when you consider that small firms employ more than half of all private sector workers in the United States, according to the Small Business Administration.”
16. An excellent chapter on myths and distortions. “PolitiFact chose the “death panels” myth as its Lie of the Year in 2009. “Government takeover” won the 2010 title.”
17. The reality of the situation. “Keep in mind that those of us who have insurance pay far more for it than necessary. That’s primarily because hospitals and other health care providers must absorb all the expense for treating the uninsured (and underinsured) who can’t pay for their own care.”
18. A very helpful glossary and additional appendices.
Negatives:
1. If you are like me you perhaps wanted more but very little to complain here.
2. No formal bibliography of supporting materials not unusual for a brief book like this.
In summary, this is an excellent and useful guide on the Affordable Care Act. Wendell Potter knows his topic well and is able to convey it in an accessible manner. This is the perfect book for the casual reader who just wants to have a basic understanding of how the ACA is going to be applied. Get it, I highly recommend it!
Further recommendations: “Deadly Spin” by the same author, “Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals” by Peter Pronovost, Ph.D., “Healing America” by T.R. Reid, “How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America” by Otis Webb Brawley, M.D. with Paul Goldberg, “Landmark: The Inside Story of America's New Health-Care Law-The Affordable Care Act-and What It Means for Us All” by The Washington Post Staff, “Overtreated” by Shannon Brownlee, “Overdiagnosed” by H. Gilbert Welsh, “Overdosed America” by John Abramson, “Selling Sickness” by Ray Moynihan, “Unaccountable” by Marty Makary, M.D., “Catastrophic Care: How American Health Care Killed My Father--and How We Can Fix It” by David Goldhill, “Sick” by Jonathan Cohn, “Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science” by Atul Gawande, and “Every Patient Tells A Story” by Lisa Sanders, M.D..
February 1, 2014
I requested this thinking that I might be able to see if this could help my patrons. I didn't think it would really help me, because I'm still getting the same insurance I had without the new Health Care Act- I was right. Sadly, I've not really read this book, either. Most people in my community don't seem to need/want something like this. I flipped through it, but that is about all.
December 28, 2015
Short, sweet, to the point
Just read it...stop regurgitating your favorite talking points. Listen to what a further exec at CIGNA has to say about the plus AND minuses of the ACA (gasp! Obamacare).
Just read it...stop regurgitating your favorite talking points. Listen to what a further exec at CIGNA has to say about the plus AND minuses of the ACA (gasp! Obamacare).
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews