Interviews from Washington DC - Health care in the United States

Today’s program centers on the issues of health care and specifically, “Obamacare.” Our host Jorge Gestoso interviews Shaun O’Brien, Assistant Policy Director for Health and Retirement of the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the United States. O’Brien tells us that 36 million people in the country do not have health care insurance and says that Uuniversal health care is not a reality in the United States due mainly to the interests of private employers and the private health insurance industry. Although government programs such as Social Security and Medicare do exist, private interests also have a negative effect on the cost of health care and the quality of health care, among the lowest among OECD countries. O’Brien sees the passage of the Affordable Health Care Act, known as “Obamacare,” as the culmination of a decadeslong effort to enact some kind of health reform. In 2010, more than 50 to 55 million people had no health insurance. The program built on the existing mix of public and private health care. Even though the reform is limited in scope, it faces fierce opposition from the Republican Party, says the labor union executive.