A month on from the healthcare reform

President Obama

For over a year President Obama campaigned to reform the US healthcare system, after months of facing opposition and working on a bill that would work, he finally managed to pass a bill to reform healthcare on 22 March. Now a month on, the focus is turning to the implementation of the new law and its impact on the healthcare industry.

In the US, the healthcare industry represents one-sixth of the US economy. In fact recent estimates have shown that this year the country will spend $2,600 billion onhealthcare this year - more than $8400 per head.

When passing the law, the Obama administration promised that by 2019 after the law is fully implemented, 32 million more Americans will be insured, that it will be illegal to discriminate against patients withpre -existing conditions, that medical care will be better and less expensive, and that billions of dollars in federal spending will be cut without any harm to care.

Winners and losers of the reform

As for which businesses and industries will ultimately emerge as winners and losers in the new system is still not clear, but important elements have emerged on the benefits and disadvantages of the new law, as well as the most pressing issues facing the industry's main participants: hospital operators, insurers, drugmakers and physicians.

Hospitals will see an influx of insured customers and will provide more services than ever. But they will receive less money from an ageing population of baby-boomers on Medicare, the government-sponsored insurance programme for the elderly. Insurers will be able to cover millions of healthy young adults who will be forced to buy their products, but are grappling with rules that will dictate how much of every dollar they must spend on medical costs, an article In line to improve reports.

For the first time, generic drugmakers will be able to seek regulatory approval for the production of generic versions of blockbuster biological drugs. Yet they are also dealing with provisions that protect brandeddrugmakers and, they say, shut them out of the lucrative market for so-called biogeneric medicines.

Now, doctors will have to disclose more about the consulting and other fees they are paid by pharmaceutical and medical device makers, raising questions about the impact such information could have on physicians' practices across the country.

Now several reports have come out, which have raised questions about some of the claims made by supporters of the bill. The reports claim that the reform will raise the country's healthcare costs instead of bringing them down.

Congressional Budget Office

Firstly, the Congressional Budget Office's review of the penalties on individuals for not buying health insurance, found that in 2017-2019, those penalties would be bringing in $4 billion a year.

The review also said that about three quarters of that money would come from individuals making less than $60,000 per year and families with less than $120,000 in yearly income, Jamie Dupree's Washington Insider reports.

Medicare Actuary

Meanwhile, the Medicare Actuary has done its own full scale review of the new health law and raised new questions about whether the plan will really reduce the rate of growth in healthcare spending.

While the report said a series of plans would "have a downward impact on future healthcare cost growth rates," the study said "these effects would be outweighed by the increased costs associated with the expansions of health insurance coverage."

The Actuary raised questions about proposed Medicare cuts and whether those might be rolled back by the Congress because of political pressures, and said it's "doubtful" that Congress would really hold the line on Medicare payments to doctors.

Health and Human Services Department

A report by economic experts at the Health and Human Services Department said the healthcare remake will achieve Obama's aim of expanding health insurance - adding 34 million Americans to the coverage rolls.

But the analysis also found that the law falls short of the president's goal of controlling runaway costs, raising projected spending by about one percent over 10 years, an article on The Straits Times reports.

The overhaul will increase national healthcare spending by US$311 billion from 2010-2019, or nine-tenths of one percent. To put that in perspective, total healthcare spending during the decade is estimated to surpass $35 trillion.

CBS News poll

So how do Americans themselves feel about the sweeping healthcare reform? According to a recent CSS News poll, after months of debate that has played out across every conceivable form of media, more than half of Americans say they still don't understand how they'll be affected by this nearly $1 trillion reform of insurance regulations, tax credits, and new programs, the article The truth about healthcare reform states.

It appears America still has a long way to go with this reform.

Jodie Humphries

Jodie Humphries graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA Hons in Creative Writing in 2008. She has worked for GDS Publishing for the digital group since July 2009. She has previous experience with writing for the web, running her own website since April 2007.

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