Recent developments regarding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have meant “a challenging and stressful time” for the nation’s health care law, according to health policy expert John McDonough.
In a December 23, 2015 post on his blog Health Stew, McDonough, Professor of the Practice of Public Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, offered an assessment of damage to Obamacare—and listed some positive developments—from the past few months. Key developments included:
- Congress delayed or suspended three taxes critical to ACA financing;
- Republicans continue to attempt to repeal major, critical portions of the law;
- 14 out of 23 co-op health insurance plans created from the ACA collapsed, and one insurer dropped out of the ACA market;
- The third open enrollment period for Obamacare is drawing larger than expected numbers;
- More states are warming up to Medicaid expansion under the ACA; and,
- More and more experts, from both sides of the ACA divide, are proposing interesting ways to improve or replace the law.
McDonough noted that the full impact of recent changes won’t be evident until after the 2016 presidential and Congressional elections. “What’s happening now is stage setting for two dramatically different health policy pathways for the nation,” he wrote. “The stakes are still high.”
Read John McDonough’s Health Stew blogpost: An ACA Damage Assessment: Real, Non-Critical, and TBD
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