HUFFINGTON
08.19.12
PROGNOSIS UNCLEAR
That law, recently upheld by
the Supreme Court, may shift
non-emergency patients away
from hospitals, but many health
care professionals still have lingering questions. What’s really
going to change when those millions of Americans are covered by
health insurance, when access to
regular medical care is improved
and skyrocketing health care costs
start to be reined in? Some worry
that the health care reform law
may not deliver on its promises,
or that if it does, it will bring with
it a new set of problems.
These reforms will be gradually implemented leading up to
2014, when the biggest part of
the law — the expansion of coverage to an estimated 30 million of
the currently uninsured — is set
to kick in. If we get it right, more
people will have the security of
health insurance, the nation can
become healthier and spending
will be restrained. If things don’t
go according to plan, it could disrupt the $4.78 trillion health care
economy by squeezing hospitals,
health insurance companies and
state governments. Waits for doctor visits could get even longer.
Chances are, we will see both
positive and negative outcomes.
Some experts believe if the largest expansion of health care coverage since the creation of Medicare
and Medicaid goes wrong, it could
also handicap a vital component of
America’s economic engine.
“Health care in this country is approaching 20 percent
of the economy and we have a
tremendous amount of uncertainty about what 2014 is going
to look like,” said John Lumpkin,
chairman of the board of directors at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New
Brunswick, N.J., at a briefing last
month sponsored by the Alliance
“Anybody who
thinks that they
can really predict
exactly what’s
going to happen
is probably making
things up.”