Helen Levy helps set the record straight on Obamacare at Michigan Public Radio

July 30, 2013
Mired in politics before and since it was signed into law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is still largely misunderstood. The Ford School's Helen Levy and Thomas Buchmueller of the U-M's Ross School of Business spoke with Michigan Public Radio to separate fact from fiction in anticipation of the insurance program's open enrollment in October of this year.

"The goal is to reach as many as we can of the approximately 50 million people who have no health insurance," said Levy. "And so the way we're trying to do that is by expanding access to individual health insurance coverage for people who could by their own coverage but don't have an employer policy."

Levy also pointed out that the public should be aware of health care exchanges, which will enable people without employer-supplied health care to buy it. Low-income people will also be able to buy insurance through the exchanges, with a subsidy from the federal government. In some states, however, Medicaid expansion will cover the uninsured.

Listen to the full discussion at Michigan Radio.