Despite a sharp political divide, industry stakeholders including insurers, employers and providers agree that health reform is better than returning to the status quo before 2010, according to an article published online in Health Affairs yesterday.
While stakeholders still face uncertainty over health reform implementation, they're shifting their attitude away from ending to mending the legislation, lobbying to modify certain provisions, the article noted.
"Many of these stakeholders prefer bargaining within the framework of the Affordable Care Act to abolishing it, root and branch, and starting over, which would create further uncertainty and large potential losses and administrative confusion," the authors state.
For example, hospitals have been calling on states to expand Medicaid coverage under health reform, targeting ramped-up lobbying efforts to their states' Republican lawmakers.
Similarly, the American Hospital Association and five other hospital groups have been pushing for expanding healthcare coverage. They also voiced their support for reform's focus on accountable care and pay for performance, according to the Health Affairs article.
More than half of physician leaders also agree with upholding health reform, according to a poll released last week from the American College of Physician Executives. Those supporters cited increased access to health insurance, costs controls and quality improvements.
Amid the partisan polarization, even a few of the big insurers already have pledged to keep some reform provisions in place, putting their efforts toward reducing costs and collaborating with lawmakers.
For more:
- read the Health Affairs article