Categories:Wall street journal
 
First published on WSJ.com on Nov. 18, 2013

[In response to the question: “If you could change one aspect of the Affordable Care Act, what would it be?”]

Similar to the old comedy straight-line, “When did you stop beating your wife?” this question has a built-in assumption.  From their first day on the wards, medical students are taught never to ask such questions, because they bias a patient’s response.

Instead, phrasing the question as “What would you do to improve healthcare or its delivery in the United States?” would elicit equivalent answers, without bias.

I’m not saying the ACA is the pinnacle of mankind’s legislative accomplishments.  But it’s clearly not the monstrous cancer that loud voices proclaim it to be.  Let us take the energy directed against the ACA and try turning it positive.  Let’s try to make the Act work, and bring healthcare insurance to the tens of millions of Americans who don’t now have it.

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