The confused future of health care
With a new administration in Washington, it’s widely accepted that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise known as Obamacare, isn’t likely to survive in its current form. But nobody seems to know whether it will be replaced or repealed, or what shape health care coverage will take in the future. The experts who met for a Kennedy School panel on the subject Monday evening didn’t presume to answer those questions, but they did pinpoint the crucial issues for the transition. While they disagreed on possible replacements, they agreed that any solution will take time to create, agree upon, and roll out. The panel on “Alternatives to the Affordable Care Act” began with a look at the benefits and drawbacks of Medicaid. According to Katherine Baicker, the C. Boyden Gray Professor of Health Economics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare led to a decline in...