Health care insurance in the U.S. will continue to be a hot-button issue in 2019 as its fate hangs in the balance. Republicans have stepped up their attempts to unwind the Affordable Care Act of 2010 in its entirety, while Democrats want to retain it by tweaking some of its features.
The Democrats, now in control of the new House of Representatives, could exert a bigger influence in reshaping health insurance law, but it is far from clear how effectively they will face off against Republicans. It is clear through polls, however, that most people support the ACA and prefer to have it tweaked rather than repealed.
Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions Eric Clemons laid out the constraints in crafting a credible health care law: “If you want universal affordability, and you want no pre-existing conditions to be excluded, and you want a private insurance market to do this, there is no way to do it without an individual mandate, and there is no way to do it without federal subsidies.”
Clemons and Wharton experts Mark Pauly and Robert Field explore how the Affordable Care Act could be revised in an installation of the “2019: A Look Ahead” series.
Read more at Knowledge@Wharton.
