NPR

Obamacare Has Problems. The Senate Health Care Bill Doesn't Solve Them, Experts Say

We asked top health care experts to tell us America's biggest health care problems. Then we asked: Does the current Republican plan fix them? For the most part, the answer was no.
Doctors, nurses, patients and activists listen as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks at Bellevue Hospital in New York last week, just after the Senate Republicans released their health care bill to the public. / Spencer Platt / Getty Images

The Affordable Care Act isn't perfect. Even proponents of the law would agree with that.

In many parts of the country, there's only one insurer in the individual markets — and in a few, there are zero. Premiums have spiked, sending some people on the insurance exchanges hunting for new plans.

If you listen to the news, you know all of this. Particularly in the last year or so, these complaints have been at the heart of Republicans' push for repealing Obamacare. And as senators try to scrape together enough votes to pass their own health care overhaul, these are at the heart of their pitch to the American people.

NPR asked eight health care experts to tell us what they view as the biggest problems with the current health care system. Then we asked: Does the Senate bill fix them? Most of the experts we consulted (backed up by a Congressional Budget Office assessment) said that for the most part, no — the Senate bill won't solve the health care system's problems, and that it in fact could make some of those

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