Although Congressional Republicans could try to chip away at parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the coming months, it’s highly unlikely that the law as a whole will be repealed, according to health policy expert John McDonough of Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).
“It’s unclear what the Republican majority could do through the budget process and what mischief could be created in terms of some funding problems. There could be a game of brinksmanship over it,” McDonough, professor of the practice of public health, said November 17, 2014 in an interview with Jim Braude of the New England Cable News show “BroadSide.” But Republicans will be hard pressed when it comes to repealing parts of the law that have improved people’s health care benefits.
“The history of health reform for the past seven years has been [like] ‘The Perils of Pauline’,” McDonough told Braude. “It has been one near-death experience after another.” He said current attacks against Obamacare “are not the most severe threats this law has faced,” adding that he is “confident that it’s going to survive and that it will become more and more a part of the U.S. health policy landscape—as it should.”
Watch John McDonough’s “BroadSide” interview
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