The Future of the ACA-Repeal or Replace – Roy Cunningham M.S. Healthcare Administration
The passing of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 is considered to have been one of the highlights of the former President Obama’s administration. The major goals of the ACA were to expand the access to health insurance to social economical challenged individuals, underinsured, and to the uninsured. Another aspect was to help drive down the cost of healthcare, as of 2014 to cost of healthcare was 17.1% of the nation’s GDP (WHO, 2017). The goal of the ACA is to lower the cost curve and slowly bring it down to a manageable level. These are all well-meaning goals, that individuals from all political backgrounds can agree upon that need to be addressed by our country. Unfortunately, the new administration has sworn to repeal and replace the historic piece of legislation.
Many Americans feel uncertain about the future of healthcare insurance with the new administration fully in charge now. The new year brought some terrible news for the Affordable Care Act. Individuals that have signed up for health insurance on the federal market place has dropped to 9.2 million. This represents a 4 percent decrease from 9.63 million in 2016 (Pear, 2017). This drop is taking its toll on many within the healthcare insurance industry. I have been personally impacted by the drop in signups on the federal market place. I was laid off from my marketing position in a healthcare insurance company located in downtown Detroit. My health insurance agency lost 40,000 thousand members at the end of last year. Numerous reasons can be contributed to the loss of members, one of them being, people holding off on renewing their accounts because of uncertainty swirling around the ACA.
At the moment, it appears to be very unlikely that the ACA will be completely torn up and thrown away. The Republican controlled House & Senate, will need eight Democratic senators to vote with their Republican counterparts. In today’s highly partisan political environment, it’s a safe bet to say they won’t cross over. Equally important, other reasons a complete repeal is unlikely is because many of the Republican politicians have warmed up to the non-controversial parts of the ACA, for instance, tax credits to small businesses. It appears that the administration is looking at steps to “repeal and replace” an alternative to the complete 100% repeal of the law. The repeal aspect would center around removing the essential health insurance coverage provisions and replacing it with their own version. Replacing large portions of the ACA would be difficult for Republicans and would leave upwards of 22 million individuals without health insurance. This is the problem the Republican House & Senate is faced with.
The new administration’s stance of the ACA seems to be changing with the wind and public opinion. There is a great concern all over the country concerning how the current administration is going to move forward. The goal moving forward is a more socially stable and equal society that can provide “true universal healthcare” access to all within the United States without bankrupting our economy. President Trump is going to have to make a firm stand on healthcare in order to convince the American public of his agenda’s healthcare. The American people cannot continually afford to be left in limbo waiting for replacement options that just will not work. The life, liberty, pursuit of happiness and healthcare of 22 million American’s depends on a clear resolution!