As the country adjusts to the news of the new president-elect, the Trump administration and a new Congress have an opportunity to make some key changes to our nation’s healthcare system, and it is hoped for the better.
For the last year and a half, American voters have been intently focused on the presidential and senatorial candidates’ plans for healthcare in 2017 and beyond. Hillary Clinton laid out her plans to expand the Affordable Care Act and increase the government’s role in our healthcare system by setting drug costs and making a public option available. Similarly, Democratic candidates including Katie McGinty, running to become a senator from Pennsylvania, and Patrick Murphy, a Senate hopeful in Florida, were in favor of fixing the ACA, rather than repealing it.
On the other side of ballot, voters heard from Donald Trump and fellow Republicans, including Pennsylvania’s senatorial candidate Pat Toomey and Florida’s Sen. Marco Rubio, warning of ever-increasing insurance premiums and promising to address rising healthcare costs by repealing and replacing the ACA.
With the election results swinging in Republicans’ favor, one thing is clear: Americans are not willing to accept an expanded government role in our nation’s healthcare system that has thus far resulted only in double-digit premium increases and lack of access to the care they need.
2016 has been a frustrating year for both consumers and the healthcare industry. Over the last several months, a majority of the ACA co-ops were forced to close, and major insurers exited the exchanges, leaving only a single provider in some states and counties. Furthermore, supporters of the ACA underestimated how much the healthcare law was negatively affecting consumers across Middle America.
Skyrocketing premium increases for those living in states such as Arizona, Alabama and Oklahoma were not only a huge shock to consumers but also left them angry and wondering how they would be able to pay for adequate coverage.
In important swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, consumers are expected to experience rate increases of more than 30 percent, 16 percent and 17 percent respectively, hurting the public’s healthcare options while the insurance companies’ revenues continue to rise. Given the double-digit increases across the country, it should come as no surprise that this was on the top of voters’ minds when it came to the future of our nation’s healthcare.
Even some of the law’s strongest supporters and key figures in Washington acknowledged the ACA’s flaws. Former President Bill Clinton said it was “the craziest thing in the world,” and Vice President Joe Biden said it is “not as good as it should be,” while Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton stressed that the ACA is “no longer affordable.”
While there is no clear solution yet for addressing the nation’s healthcare issues, leaders in Washington know that Americans are expecting a change.
With Republicans controlling the White House and Congress, there is a chance the ACA will be repealed in 2017, along with several other changes to the healthcare landscape. However, if Congress and the new administration are seeking tangible changes in healthcare that will last for the next four years and beyond, then the ACA must be replaced with policies that protect consumers and taxpayers without handcuffing them to insurers through narrow networks and dwindling competition.
Moreover, healthcare is about prioritizing Americans’ needs to ensure that the nation remains strong and healthy — not for the insurance industry and the government to put their interests before those of consumers.
As with any political transition, consumers will rely on the next set of leaders to drive progress in healthcare for consumers. The Department of Health and Human Services will certainly undergo many changes in the coming months, and those who take on healthcare reform in 2017 will have a long and possibly tumultuous job ahead of them.
More important, it’s critical that new American leadership recognize and acknowledge that affordable healthcare means that people can comfortably pay for it. The government would be wrong to undermine consumers and taxpayers again for the next four years.
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