The election is over and attention is already turning to when and how the new Obama administration will take on the issue of healthcare reform and what the implications will be for the healthcare industry.
A story in today’s HFMA News reports on a special comment released by Moody’s Investors Service looking at the credit rating implications of the Obama healthcare reform proposal for various sectors of the healthcare industry. The good news for providers is that Moody’s sees a generally credit positive impact for them resulting from increased volumes and lower numbers for unreimbursed care.
Meanwhile, much attention has focused on the state of Massachusetts, which has been experimenting with healthcare reform that has led to near-universal coverage over the past two years. The Obama reform proposal has drawn many of its details from the Massachusetts plan, so the successes and challenges that Massachusetts has faced in implementing its plan suggest what might lie ahead on the national stage.
An article in this week’s Boston Globe notes that after two years, the healthcare reform initiative in Massachusetts is still a work in progress. Much has been achieved--including a 97 percent coverage rate of the state’s residents. But the reform has required many detailed and delicate negotiations among the state’s healthcare stakeholders. Recently, state legislatures decided to postpone a requirement that small businesses cover more of their employees. All of this suggests--to no one’s surprise--that healthcare reform will not be accomplished as a “first 100 days” initiative of the new administration.
Looming over the entire question of healthcare reform is the already staggering cost of the economic bailout plan that was passed by Congress earlier this fall. There are substantial costs attached to the Obama plan (an estimated $1.17 trillion from 2010 to 2019), and the nation may well be approaching its limit on what it can afford to do.
The momentum and desire for healthcare reform is nonetheless there--it consistently ranked as one of the top issues of concern to voters. What do you think are the chances of reform? Let us know by posting your comment below.
