What’s next for the ACA

Here we are on November 15th one day after President Obama unexpectedly delayed a key provision of the Affordable Care Act, which allows insurance companies to continue, for one year, offering health care plans that fall short of the requirements as outlined in the ACA . The next day our “stewards of national well being” elected to pass a bill in the House of Representatives which is intended to allow insurance companies to sell individual health coverage to anyone who wants it, irrespective of any required standards in the ACA. As expected, the vote was justified on the grounds that the House is concerned that people will be left without health insurance under the current law, no consideration at all, wink wink , was given to 2014 reelection concerns.

Although the measure is expected to fail in the Senate, the underlying issue remains – that partisanship continues to prevent any attempts to take a more reasoned approach to bolster what is good about the ACA and to work out solutions on what is not working.

I think most of us already agree that the ACA or ObamaCare will be a major election topic as it was in 2012. In the meantime we will continue to see repeated efforts to roll back any and all provisions of the law.

What gets lost in all of the machinations by Congress and our Executive Branch is that not much has changed. We still have 40 plus million people uninsured, we still have the elderly making choices between buying food or prescriptions, and we still have lots of false or misleading information published on a daily basis about the intended impact of the ACA.

Personally, I believe the effort was flawed from the beginning but what’s done is done and although I may be a lone voice in the wind, I believe it is the responsibility of Congress, consumers and health professionals to stop sniping and start working on how we make the ACA as successful as can be. If that requires changes along the way so be it. What we don’t need is continued political posturing. In many respects our future is at stake depending on how we move forward..

Resources

Gorman Health Group Senior Vice President of Public Policy Jean LeMasurier, summarizes the final rule that sets standards for refunds when a Marketplace or QHP improperly applies federal subsidies or incorrectly assigns an enrollee to a plan. Download the summary here >>