Perspectives on healthcare reform: A year later,what more do we know?

PPACA or the Affordable Care Act(1) was signed into law on March 23, 2010.(2) To many, the Affordable Care Act offers the promise of far greater access to high‐quality, affordable care. But to others, PPACA risks unsustainable cost increases, diminished freedoms, and irreparable harm to the world's finest healthcare delivery system. Which characterization will ultimately be proved correct? Or might the actual reforms surprise both proponents and skeptics? With a year of experience under our belts, it seems appropriate to ask: What more do we know about the new law, now?     

Why the way we are living may be bad for our mental well-being, and what we might choose to do about it: Responding to a 21st Century public health challenge

With economic recession biting ever harder, rates of mental ill-health rising and levels of mental well-being falling, this article suggests that it is time to critique the progress we have made, re-evaluate what it is that makes life worth living, and consider what public health may have to offer in the 21st Century. This article focuses on three distinct areas: the public health challenge; the broader societal challenges; and suggestions for effective responses. It argues that mental well-being, both individually and collectively, is a public health resource that, until now, has been underplayed and undervalued in traditional approaches to public health. Drawing on the evidence, it promotes the need for a more integrated approach to public health for the future, pulling together action and evidence on both physical and mental health and well-being, with the ultimate aim of creating a more mentally healthy society.