The Affordable Care Act and the Transformation of US Health Care

The neoliberal period was accompanied by a momentous transformation within the US health care system.  As the result of a number of political and historical dynamics, the healthcare law signed by President Barack Obama in 2010 ‑the Affordable Care Act (ACA)‑ drew less on universal models from abroad than it did on earlier conservative healthcare reform proposals. This was in part the result of the influence of powerful corporate healthcare interests. While the ACA expands healthcare coverage, it does so incompletely and unevenly, with persistent uninsurance and disparities in access based on insurance status. Additionally, the law accommodates an overall shift towards a consumerist model of care characterized by high cost sharing at time of use. Finally, the law encourages the further consolidation of the healthcare sector, for instance into units named “Accountable Care Organizations” that closely resemble the health maintenance organizations favored by managed care advocates. The overall effect has been to maintain a fragmented system that is neither equitable nor efficient. A single payer universal system would, in contrast, help transform healthcare into a social right.

Formal evolution and content in Asturian newspapers. From World War One to the Primo de Rivera Dictatorship

Between 1914 and 1923, and in general during the 1910s and 1920s, important changes occurred in the Asturian press that can be seen, for example, in the type of dailies which achieved certain readership levels. The form and number of pages evolved, images became more common, so-called citizen journalism was more freely practised, and there was a trend -when there was an opportunity- towards publishing articles which involved the author travelling to distant lands. Simultaneously, the consideration of sport as a show and the treatment given to other content both helped outline a new media scenario.