Central PA Medicine - February 2017 - 6

daup h i n cm s .org

President's Message

Mukul Parikh, MD, DABA
President, DCMS

Changing Healthcare
Landscape

ur country just went through and Trump has already acknowledged that
a tumultuous and contentious he will retain some popular provisions of
Presidential election. Donald ACA. The risk of repealing it right away
Trump won the election surpris- without thoughtful replacement could result
ingly, beating all the standard predictions in millions of people being left uninsured.
and polls up until Election Day. What is This could lead patients coming to emergency
unique is that Trump has never served in an rooms for problems they potentially could
elected office and the Republican Party will have taken care of if they had some form
now control both the House and the Senate. of insurance and a place to go. This could
also lead to escalation of healthcare costs. To
One of the centerpieces of Trump's and be able to sell healthcare insurance across
the Republicans' election manifesto is to state borders may help keep the costs down.
repeal and replace the Accountable Care There are many minor or major changes that
Act (ACA) (also known as Obamacare) can be done with variable influence on the
which will definitely change the healthcare costs, quality and accessibility.
landscape over the next four years. When
and how this occurs is the question.
What will ultimately happen is anyone's
guess. The Republicans have major difRepealing Obamacare is easy enough ferences among themselves and they have
through a simple legislative process. The to work it out with other vested interests
House of Representatives and Senate have including the Democrats.
already done so multiple times in the last
few years, but the Presidential veto prevented
One thing everyone in the healthcare
it from coming to fruition. As such, there profession would agree to is the reduction
was no need to replace Obamacare with an of unnecessary and redundant paperwork
alternative healthcare system, but this will now that has not helped the quality or the cost in
need to be done more or less simultaneously. the healthcare arena. There is a tremendous
amount of time and energy wasted towards
This is a much more difficult task and a the above effort. Will this happen? Only
conundrum for the incoming administration time will tell.

6 February 2017 Central PA Medicine

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