title: Between liberal aspirations and market forces: Obamacare's precarious balancing act.
abstract: The 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) represents a milestone in U.S. health care policy. The ACA moves the American health care system away, in important respects, from market-driven health care, including imposing new regulations on health insurers. Yet the ACA also relies, in other respects, on market forces to achieve its aims, including its embrace of health plan competition and high-deductible insurance. This article explores how the ACA balances liberal aspirations and market principles, and the implications for health reform implementation and the future of U.S. health care.
authors.affiliation: Professor and Vice Chair of Social Medicine, and Professor of Health Policy & Management at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oberlander
mesh_terms: D003132:Commerce; D018166:Health Care Reform; D006801:Humans; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; D011057:Politics; D014481:United States