United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next Steps

By Barack Obama, JD
JAMA, July 11, 2016 (Online)

Abstract

Importance: The Affordable Care Act is the most important health care legislation enacted in the United States since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. The law implemented comprehensive reforms designed to improve the accessibility, affordability, and quality of health care.

Objectives: To review the factors influencing the decision to pursue health reform, summarize evidence on the effects of the law to date, recommend actions that could improve the health care system, and identify general lessons for public policy from the Affordable Care Act.

Evidence: Analysis of publicly available data, data obtained from government agencies, and published research findings. The period examined extends from 1963 to early 2016.

Findings: The Affordable Care Act has made significant progress toward solving long-standing challenges facing the US health care system related to access, affordability, and quality of care. Since the Affordable Care Act became law, the uninsured rate has declined by 43%, from 16.0% in 2010 to 9.1% in 2015, primarily because of the law’s reforms. Research has documented accompanying improvements in access to care (for example, an estimated reduction in the share of nonelderly adults unable to afford care of 5.5 percentage points), financial security (for example, an estimated reduction in debts sent to collection of $600-$1000 per person gaining Medicaid coverage), and health (for example, an estimated reduction in the share of nonelderly adults reporting fair or poor health of 3.4 percentage points). The law has also begun the process of transforming health care payment systems, with an estimated 30% of traditional Medicare payments now flowing through alternative payment models like bundled payments or accountable care organizations. These and related reforms have contributed to a sustained period of slow growth in per-enrollee health care spending and improvements in health care quality. Despite this progress, major opportunities to improve the health care system remain.

Conclusions and Relevance: Policy makers should build on progress made by the Affordable Care Act by continuing to implement the Health Insurance Marketplaces and delivery system reform, increasing federal financial assistance for Marketplace enrollees, introducing a public plan option in areas lacking individual market competition, and taking actions to reduce prescription drug costs. Although partisanship and special interest opposition remain, experience with the Affordable Care Act demonstrates that positive change is achievable on some of the nation’s most complex challenges.

Building on Progress to Date (excerpt)

Third, more can and should be done to enhance competition in the Marketplaces. For most Americans in most places, the Marketplaces are working. The ACA supports competition and has encouraged the entry of hospital-based plans, Medicaid managed care plans, and other plans into new areas. As a result, the majority of the country has benefited from competition in the Marketplaces, with 88% of enrollees living in counties with at least 3 issuers in 2016, which helps keep costs in these areas low. However, the remaining 12% of enrollees live in areas with only 1 or 2 issuers. Some parts of the country have struggled with limited insurance market competition for many years, which is one reason that, in the original debate over health reform, Congress considered and I supported including a Medicare-like public plan. Public programs like Medicare often deliver care more cost-effectively by curtailing administrative overhead and securing better prices from providers. The public plan did not make it into the final legislation. Now, based on experience with the ACA, I think Congress should revisit a public plan to compete alongside private insurers in areas of the country where competition is limited. Adding a public plan in such areas would strengthen the Marketplace approach, giving consumers more affordable options while also creating savings for the federal government.

Lessons for Future Policy Makers (excerpt)

The third lesson is the importance of pragmatism in both legislation and implementation. Simpler approaches to addressing our health care problems exist at both ends of the political spectrum: the single-payer model vs government vouchers for all. Yet the nation typically reaches its greatest heights when we find common ground between the public and private good and adjust along the way. That was my approach with the ACA. We engaged with Congress to identify the combination of proven health reform ideas that could pass and have continued to adapt them since.

As this progress with health care reform in the United States demonstrates, faith in responsibility, belief in opportunity, and ability to unite around common values are what makes this nation great.

The full article can be downloaded for free at the JAMA website:

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2533698

***

Comment:

By Don McCanne, M.D.

In this JAMA article, President Obama understandably touts the benefits of his Affordable Care Act (ACA) and describes some of the problems that remain that need to be addressed. Two serious deficiencies of his article are that he fails to acknowledge the fact that some of the changes taking place are actually detrimental, and his proposals for the way forward are grossly inadequate when considering the need.

A few examples of where changes have been detrimental include the expansion of intolerably high deductibles creating financial barriers to care, increased use of narrow provider networks impairing access to care, and expansion of administrative excesses including the Marketplaces (ACA insurance exchanges) and the new models of paying for care (APMs, ACOs, and MACRA models).

The President touts enhanced competition in the Marketplaces as a way forward when the prevailing evidence indicates that competition in private insurance markets is ineffective in improving quality and reducing costs. It is predicted that insurance premium increases for 2017 will confirm that the ACA exchanges have not been effective in controlling costs. Not only are insurance premiums going up, but more costs are being shifted to patients in the form of higher out-of-pocket spending.

The media are reporting the President’s recommendation for a “Medicare-like public plan,” yet the hope that a public option will open the door for single payer cannot be realized when it is offered only as another option in our fragmented system of financing health care. The failure of the co-ops should signal to us the deficiencies of a public or quasi-public option which is designed to protect the markets of the private insurers. The private Medicare Advantage plans are continuing to displace the traditional Medicare program because the politicians have provided the private plans with extra funds and regulatory freedom that allow them to “compete” unfairly with Medicare.

Finally, the President presents single payer and government vouchers for private plans as being the two extremes of health care financing reform, whereas ACA represents the “common ground between the public and private good.” Placing ideologically-driven health care reform policies along a linear political spectrum and then choosing the middle is an extremely simplistic and highly flawed approach to health policy. Health policies should be placed along a spectrum of effectiveness of those policies in achieving health reform goals of universality, efficiency, equity, comprehensiveness, accessibility, and affordability. Then the extreme that achieves those goals should be accepted as the ideal model for reform while rejecting those policies at the other end. To no surprise, using a spectrum based on optimal health policy leads us logically to single payer.

The President ends with the statement, “As this progress with health care reform in the United States demonstrates, faith in responsibility, belief in opportunity, and ability to unite around common values are what makes this nation great.” With the majority of the nation now supporting a federally funded health care system, isn’t that a call for uniting around health care reform that really works: a single payer national health program?

United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next Steps

By Barack Obama, JD
JAMA, July 11, 2016 (Online)

Abstract

Importance: The Affordable Care Act is the most important health care legislation enacted in the United States since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. The law implemented comprehensive reforms designed to improve the accessibility, affordability, and quality of health care.

Objectives: To review the factors influencing the decision to pursue health reform, summarize evidence on the effects of the law to date, recommend actions that could improve the health care system, and identify general lessons for public policy from the Affordable Care Act.

Evidence: Analysis of publicly available data, data obtained from government agencies, and published research findings. The period examined extends from 1963 to early 2016.

Findings: The Affordable Care Act has made significant progress toward solving long-standing challenges facing the US health care system related to access, affordability, and quality of care. Since the Affordable Care Act became law, the uninsured rate has declined by 43%, from 16.0% in 2010 to 9.1% in 2015, primarily because of the law’s reforms. Research has documented accompanying improvements in access to care (for example, an estimated reduction in the share of nonelderly adults unable to afford care of 5.5 percentage points), financial security (for example, an estimated reduction in debts sent to collection of $600-$1000 per person gaining Medicaid coverage), and health (for example, an estimated reduction in the share of nonelderly adults reporting fair or poor health of 3.4 percentage points). The law has also begun the process of transforming health care payment systems, with an estimated 30% of traditional Medicare payments now flowing through alternative payment models like bundled payments or accountable care organizations. These and related reforms have contributed to a sustained period of slow growth in per-enrollee health care spending and improvements in health care quality. Despite this progress, major opportunities to improve the health care system remain.

Conclusions and Relevance: Policy makers should build on progress made by the Affordable Care Act by continuing to implement the Health Insurance Marketplaces and delivery system reform, increasing federal financial assistance for Marketplace enrollees, introducing a public plan option in areas lacking individual market competition, and taking actions to reduce prescription drug costs. Although partisanship and special interest opposition remain, experience with the Affordable Care Act demonstrates that positive change is achievable on some of the nation’s most complex challenges.

Building on Progress to Date (excerpt)

Third, more can and should be done to enhance competition in the Marketplaces. For most Americans in most places, the Marketplaces are working. The ACA supports competition and has encouraged the entry of hospital-based plans, Medicaid managed care plans, and other plans into new areas. As a result, the majority of the country has benefited from competition in the Marketplaces, with 88% of enrollees living in counties with at least 3 issuers in 2016, which helps keep costs in these areas low. However, the remaining 12% of enrollees live in areas with only 1 or 2 issuers. Some parts of the country have struggled with limited insurance market competition for many years, which is one reason that, in the original debate over health reform, Congress considered and I supported including a Medicare-like public plan. Public programs like Medicare often deliver care more cost-effectively by curtailing administrative overhead and securing better prices from providers. The public plan did not make it into the final legislation. Now, based on experience with the ACA, I think Congress should revisit a public plan to compete alongside private insurers in areas of the country where competition is limited. Adding a public plan in such areas would strengthen the Marketplace approach, giving consumers more affordable options while also creating savings for the federal government.

Lessons for Future Policy Makers (excerpt)

The third lesson is the importance of pragmatism in both legislation and implementation. Simpler approaches to addressing our health care problems exist at both ends of the political spectrum: the single-payer model vs government vouchers for all. Yet the nation typically reaches its greatest heights when we find common ground between the public and private good and adjust along the way. That was my approach with the ACA. We engaged with Congress to identify the combination of proven health reform ideas that could pass and have continued to adapt them since.

As this progress with health care reform in the United States demonstrates, faith in responsibility, belief in opportunity, and ability to unite around common values are what makes this nation great.

The full article can be downloaded for free at the JAMA website:

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2533698

In this JAMA article, President Obama understandably touts the benefits of his Affordable Care Act (ACA) and describes some of the problems that remain that need to be addressed. Two serious deficiencies of his article are that he fails to acknowledge the fact that some of the changes taking place are actually detrimental, and his proposals for the way forward are grossly inadequate when considering the need.

A few examples of where changes have been detrimental include the expansion of intolerably high deductibles creating financial barriers to care, increased use of narrow provider networks impairing access to care, and expansion of administrative excesses including the Marketplaces (ACA insurance exchanges) and the new models of paying for care (APMs, ACOs, and MACRA models).

The President touts enhanced competition in the Marketplaces as a way forward when the prevailing evidence indicates that competition in private insurance markets is ineffective in improving quality and reducing costs. It is predicted that insurance premium increases for 2017 will confirm that the ACA exchanges have not been effective in controlling costs. Not only are insurance premiums going up, but more costs are being shifted to patients in the form of higher out-of-pocket spending.

The media are reporting the President’s recommendation for a “Medicare-like public plan,” yet the hope that a public option will open the door for single payer cannot be realized when it is offered only as another option in our fragmented system of financing health care. The failure of the co-ops should signal to us the deficiencies of a public or quasi-public option which is designed to protect the markets of the private insurers. The private Medicare Advantage plans are continuing to displace the traditional Medicare program because the politicians have provided the private plans with extra funds and regulatory freedom that allow them to “compete” unfairly with Medicare.

Finally, the President presents single payer and government vouchers for private plans as being the two extremes of health care financing reform, whereas ACA represents the “common ground between the public and private good.” Placing ideologically-driven health care reform policies along a linear political spectrum and then choosing the middle is an extremely simplistic and highly flawed approach to health policy. Health policies should be placed along a spectrum of effectiveness of those policies in achieving health reform goals of universality, efficiency, equity, comprehensiveness, accessibility, and affordability. Then the extreme that achieves those goals should be accepted as the ideal model for reform while rejecting those policies at the other end. To no surprise, using a spectrum based on optimal health policy leads us logically to single payer.

The President ends with the statement, “As this progress with health care reform in the United States demonstrates, faith in responsibility, belief in opportunity, and ability to unite around common values are what makes this nation great.” With the majority of the nation now supporting a federally funded health care system, isn’t that a call for uniting around health care reform that really works: a single payer national health program?