Why Repealing Obamacare would not Spell Doom for the Healthcare Industry

The repeal of Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act, is not the end of the healthcare industry. That is true whether Obamacare is outright repealed or replaced with a different structure. Let’s look at the impact the Affordable Care Act had on the health insurance industry, government health programs and consumers. And we’ll look at why repealing Obamacare will not hurt the healthcare industry and will likely help health insurers and patients alike.

Health Insurance Is Not Health Care

Health insurance is not health care. Health insurance is not necessary to get health care, as many cash paying patients demonstrate. In fact, health insurance rules and mandates that drive up the cost of insurance can actually get in the way of health care. Making $30,000 a year and paying $1,000 a month for health insurance may make you delay seeking treatment you literally cannot afford.

Obamacare Caused Health Insurance Costs to Go Up – and Repealing It Will Lower Them

The ACA had laws requiring the federal government to give money to health insurers for their losses, and they faced massive losses despite consolidation. It was so bad that many insurers pulled out of the state health insurance exchanges because they couldn’t continue the losses.

Repeal Obamacare and return the health insurance market to the free market and we’ll likely return to health insurance rates that people were able to afford. Allow health insurers to offer health insurance across state lines and legalize cheaper alternatives to health insurance and health insurance will become cheaper than it was before the Affordable Care Act passed.

Process Improvement and Improving Technologies in Healthcare

Perhaps the only good point of Obamacare was the requirement that health providers like hospitals implement Six Sigma and other process improvement methodologies in their facilities. This was already going on in an effort to improve patient care, but the streamlining of operations from the emergency room to billing was accelerated due to the law. You can earn a relevant degree in an online MHA program from ADU Online or complete an MHA degree at a state college.

These cost savings are separate from money saving technologies like health monitoring apps, telemedicine, improving non-invasive diagnostics and lab tests that can be performed at home or in the doctor’s office.

Repealing Obamacare will not cost people their health care, since health insurance is not the same thing as health care. It is sometimes an impediment to care when the health insurance limits your options or is so expensive you can’t pay for what you need out-of-pocket. Repealing Obamacare will likely lower health insurance costs for consumers for the standard, mid-level plan while allowing the cheaper health insurance plans to become legal again.

Replacing mandated health insurance coverage with government health programs is not a viable option both due to its high costs and failure to meet the most basic needs of patients, as the many dead vets waiting for VA care demonstrate. The application of process improvement methodologies and improving technologies for low cost monitoring and consultation are reducing medical costs for everyone.