The Healthcare Policy Year Ahead

摘要

Following the 2020 elections, the United States saw the election of a new president from the opposite party to that of the former president. At the same time, the Democrats have now won a new majority in the U.S. Senate, while retaining their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. So with the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives controlled by one party, what might the impact be on healthcare policy development in 2021 and beyond? The answer is not simple, for a number of reasons. First, all those interviewed for this article agree, the first few months of this year will have been dominated by issues around COVID-19 relief legislation. Indeed, as this article was going to press, President Joe Biden and the Democratic leaders in Congress were working on a COVID-19 relief package that was being prepared for a vote sometime in March. But after that? The biggest two factors in the federal healthcare policy landscape will revolve around potential modifications or enhancements to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and around potential enhancements to value-based contracting, in the context of ongoing increases in total U.S. healthcare expenditures, which the Medicare program's actuaries believe could explode from the current approximately $3.6 trillion a year to a potential $6 trillion a year within the next six years or so. In other words, the burning platform for change will provide a live flame motivating policy change in potentially key areas of healthcare payment and delivery.