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Thursday, March 28, 2024
NEWS  |  CAMPUS

UNC professor speaks on Obamacare, future of health care

<p>Jonathan Oberlander, professor of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discusses the details of the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and health care reform to a full audience at the Bob Graham Center on Tuesday. "Maybe the most important thing to understand about the Affordable Care Act is that, in a fundamental way, it is incremental," Oberlander said. "Yes, it is ambitious – it does things that we have never done in this country before."</p>

Jonathan Oberlander, professor of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discusses the details of the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and health care reform to a full audience at the Bob Graham Center on Tuesday. "Maybe the most important thing to understand about the Affordable Care Act is that, in a fundamental way, it is incremental," Oberlander said. "Yes, it is ambitious – it does things that we have never done in this country before."

A health care reform expert told students and community members the government should provide health care Tuesday night.

Jonathan Oberlander, the chair of social medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, spoke about the positive and negative aspects of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. He spoke to about 80 students and community members in Pugh Hall.       

He said Obamacare has insured 11.6 million Americans as of January, but the system has many flaws.

“The Affordable Care Act is unaffordable for a lot of Americans,” he said. “It’s a major issue going forward.”             

Obamacare expanded Medicaid, insurance typically given to pregnant women, children and the disabled, to include Americans who didn’t qualify for it, Oberlander said. But many states didn’t adopt Obama’s plan.

Oberlander said the government should care for the poorest.

“I say with great regret and sorrow that the state of Florida has failed this moral test,” he said. “The state of North Carolina has failed this test, and so have a lot of other states.”

He said Americans don’t sign up for Obamacare because of political parties’ inability to explain the complex system.

“People look at the law through blue and red glasses,” Oberlander said. “And they see the same thing very differently, and they interpret it differently.”

He said the presidential race will determine the law’s fate. If a Democrat wins, Obamacare will move forward. If a Republican wins, however, it will be challenged.

“I think we got a lot of unexpected twists and turns,” he said. “I don’t think we know the answer right now, but we’re going to find out real soon.”

Caroline Nickerson, a UF history and East Asian languages and literatures junior, said she thought Oberland’s assessment of the law was realistic and non partisan.

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“I thought that he laid out some really grim facts with optimism at the same time,” the 21-year-old said.

Jonathan Oberlander, professor of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discusses the details of the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and health care reform to a full audience at the Bob Graham Center on Tuesday. "Maybe the most important thing to understand about the Affordable Care Act is that, in a fundamental way, it is incremental," Oberlander said. "Yes, it is ambitious – it does things that we have never done in this country before."

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