Buyer’s Regret
“It’s not over, until it’s over.” I thought of the famous ‘Yogi-ism’ after hearing the Supreme Court’s decision last week, and recognized healthcare reform is far from over. Obviously, November 6 is a potential turning point, but the election of President Romney is more likely to lead to an ‘unbundling’ of the Accountable Care Act (ACA) than its total appeal. The administration is moving rapidly to change the ‘facts on the ground’ of healthcare reform, and those changes will be hard to repeal (or replace) before or after November.
Because much of the cost of the ACA was back loaded to 2013, the negative impact of the reforms will not be felt by most Americans until we get our first paycheck in January. If an Obama administration is still in place, this will be the moment when real negative blowback hits, but at that point, it will have minimal legislative or legal impact. But buyer’s regret…that we will have. And that will stick around forever.
Norm Smith is president of Viewpoint Consulting, Inc, a consulting company driven by market research among decision makers at large buyers of pharmaceuticals, including health plans, PBMs, Long Term Care, Hospitals, and in Medicare and Medicaid. Norm can be reached at ViewpointConsulting.net.
