Because of cost, healthcare has always been a top issue for the business community. It’s also a big concern for consumers, spawned in part by the fact each year costs increase and obtaining it becomes more challenging. Congress has been considering an ever broader array of issues on the subject.
At least that’s how Michael Evans sees it. Evans is managing director for the Newport Board Group, a partnership of board directors and senior executive leaders with deep knowledge of business strategy, operations, and capital markets.
“Currently, there are 698 bills in Congress that reference health or healthcare,” Evans writes for Allbusiness.com. “Few will receive the bipartisan support necessary to move them through Congress, and it’s likely that fewer will be signed into law by the president. Any way you look at it, the intense national spotlight on an issue that affects every American family is likely to yield some significant change.”
Check Out NJBIA’s Healthcare Benefits Solutions for Member Companies
Evans says these five issues bear watching:
- Patient disclosure. Many proposals focus on the disclosure of cost and financial information to the patient as well as the relationship between the patient, provider, and insurer—details which up to now have not always been transparent.
- Drug pricing. Legislation has been introduced to address rapid and significant drug price increases which have occurred in the last few years.
- Insurance coverage. The Marketing and Outreach Restoration to Empower Health Education Act of 2019 (or the MORE Health Education Act) would require outreach and educational activities regarding federally facilitated health insurance exchanges.
- Pre-existing conditions. R 986, the Protecting Americans with Preexisting Conditions Act of 2019, attempts to preserve pre-existing condition coverage by nullifying certain state waivers of ACA requirements.
- Medicare for all. Several proposals in the House are focused on extending Medicare to all Americans, an issue that has become a focal point among Democratic presidential candidates.
