Commonwealth Fund: In the Healthcare Aftermath
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has always needed fixing. Now that the Congress has tried and failed to repeal and replace it, the time for repair seems at hand. Long term, a fair and sustainable approach to covering the uninsured and constraining our extraordinary health care costs will require bipartisan support. The question is whether the current Congress and administration — perhaps after a period of rest and reflection — can return to consider a modest set of fixes that will preserve the gains achieved under the ACA, and lay the groundwork for progress.
If we can create the political and mental space for such a bipartisan effort, we should turn to the strategies that Timothy Jost outlined earlier this month in a Commonwealth Fund To the Point. The immediate concern is stabilizing marketplaces to ensure that the 17 million to 18 million people getting coverage through the individual market will be able to successfully reenroll during this fall’s open enrollment period. Three key proposals for Congress to consider include: . . .