“Health Policy” is the term we use to describe the changes being made to the U.S. health care system under the Affordable Care Act. But as we’re reminded from time to time, for example in a blog post by Austin Frakt earlier this month at The Incidental Economist, the ACA is more accurately defined as health insurance reform.
Certainly insurance reforms are badly needed, but these reforms alone are doing little to reform the actual delivery of care to patients. Jim Doyle, who covers the health care industry for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, makes this point in on a series on health care access and the fraying safety net.
In a new “How I Did It” article, Doyle explains what he found when reporting from rural parts of Missouri and Arkansas is that, while the Affordable Care Act will bring changes to the health insurance marketplace in these areas, it only goes so far in helping the poor access health care services.
“If you report on rural hospitals, you’ll soon recognize the parallels between the health care disparities the poor face in rural areas and in the inner cities and that health insurance reform only goes so far, causing many safety-net organizations to struggle,” he writes.
Of particular interest to health care journalists is how Doyle approaches his work. “It’s important in this endeavor to challenge conventional wisdom – to aim to test everything, including experts’ conclusions and my own assumptions and tentative findings,” he adds.
Health care journalists also may find it useful to review Doyle’s impressive list of resources he uses to inform his reporting.
