The Romney Factor?

There's a new myth circulating: that Romney, if elected, will abolish health care reform. As they say, don't believe everything you hear. The truth of this matter is more than likely quite the opposite. Abolish or accelerate?

The confusion originates with an old failure, the failure to distinguish between health care reform and health insurance reform. Obamacare is about health insurance reforms. Who gets covered and who pays? How? When? You know, the usual menu when it comes to money. That's very different from the basic tenets of health care reform: transparency, portability, interoperability, higher quality at lower cost. These are shared values that players and parties tend to agree on more than they differ.  

As for the money side of the equation, we would naturally expect a Republican president to replace Obamacare with something like "Romneycare", right? Something's going to happen to redefine and rebrand the program. But what will those changes be?

Here's what the American Academy of Family Physicians had to say following last week's presidential debate (see the full statement here):

“Regardless of the election outcome, health care reform will continue. The AAFP calls for reforms that ensure Americans’ access to health care by building the primary care physician workforce, laying a path that enables all Americans to have health care coverage, and improves the quality and lowers the cost of health care services.”

Would you believe that, rather than abolish the reform movement, a new government could expedite it? How so? In reality, it's the federal government that is keeping the pace of change moving as slowly as it is. You've seen the delays: stage 1 certification was released months later than planned, now stage 2 is delayed (until October 2014) far behind the original schedule. The switch to ICD-10 codes has been postponed. By and large, the reasons are good ones, giving time for more public input, allowing room for industries to adapt.

An important pilot project in which the AAFP is deeply integrated - the Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative - involves both private and public payers. CPCI is a 2-year initiative at the behest of CMS. Were it up to the private payers, this project would wrap up in about 6 months.

More or less across the board, private industry would drive change much faster than government agencies permit. Without the political process and federal agencies applying the brakes, reform measures would accelerate not dissipate.

Alistair Jackson, M.Ed.
Jim Grue, O.D.